Teaching Transgressors the Ways of God

 

“Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.” -Psalm 51:13

How many transgressors do you know? It’s not a word we tend to use anymore. Yet, the Bible uses this term for those not following God: criminals, transgressors of God’s law. What do you want to say to transgressors?

In Psalm 51, David had been caught in a great evil. He had slept with a married woman and arranged her husband’s death to cover up his crime, but the Lord sent His prophet Nathan to call David out. David cried out to the Lord, “hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (10-11). What kind of renewed spirit? “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit” (12). This all comes from knowledge of God in His Word, and a delight in this knowledge (6).

David was forgiven by God for such a grievous transgression. David prayed for God’s wisdom in his heart, forgiveness of sin, a joy of God’s saving power, and a new spirit to walk in the ways of God. With God’s salvation and the return of David, David now says “I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You.”

Do you consider yourself before God as David did, aware of your transgressions and sins against God (3-4)? Has the Lord forgiven you, a criminal? Has the Lord restored the joy of His salvation to you, giving you a new spirit to obey Him? Are you walking in God’s ways? If you are, it is all grace. In the song we as a church family sing together, “All I Have is Christ,” there is a line that grips my heart each time we sing it: “Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone and live so all might see the strength to follow Your commands could never come from me.” You are not righteous, good, doing good things, being an upright person because you worked hard, learned more, make better life decisions than the transgressors around you.

Now I return to my opening questions: how many transgressors do you know? What do you want to say to transgressors? As I reflect upon Psalm 51, I am aware of the stunning amount of sin I am guilty of before God. I am a transgressor. I have no moral strength nor right standing to accuse my transgressing neighbor. I want them to know the ways of my gracious, compassionate, holy Lord who forgave me and put a new spirit within me.

This idea of “teaching transgressors Your ways” is discipleship. It isn’t a one-time thing, but an ongoing thing. I want my neighbors to know the ways of the Lord, so I teach them the wisdom of His Word in casual conversations with a genuine care for their souls. I befriend my transgressor neighbors as a fellow transgressor, yet forgiven. If I teach transgressors the ways of the Lord, to follow Christ, sinners will return to Him.

This is the desire of my heart, and I pray this is the desire of your heart: to know transgressors, compelled by the love of Christ teaching them His ways that sinners may return to the Lord. God is glorified in His grace in Christ toward such transgressors of His law as you and me. God has made a new creature of our old selves. Let us teach transgressors the ways of the Lord that sinners may return to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, how my heart rejoices with thankful praise that Your grace for me in Christ who washes me clean and gives me a clean heart and a new spirit within me! I thank You, Lord, for Your compassion and patience with such a transgressor as me. Lord, grant me wisdom to teach my transgressing neighbors Your ways that sinners may return to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Unity by Divine Supply

 

“…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…” -Ephesians 4:2

I have been meditating Psalm 27, praying to be made useful as an instrument in the Lord’s hands in the surroundings He has sovereignly placed me. It seems people have been increasingly angry and anxious recently. Factor in COVID-19 and a presidential election year, the problems in the human hearts around me have simply escalated.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to meet the problems of the human hearts head on with the good news of Jesus Christ. We work and toil in this very same angry and anxious world, which affects us far more than we truly realize. We grow wearing in doing good. Our humility, gentleness, patience, and forbearance have limits in the flesh.

We need to hear of Christ’s mercies. We need reminding of Christ’s mercies. We need to receive Christ’s mercies. We each have need of Christ’s mercies in His beloved church to handle us with humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with us in love from a heart eager to maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Christ’s given peace.

These characteristics do not come naturally; rather, they must be supernaturally given. Do not fall into the temptation that these attributes well up from sheer willpower or misused to accuse others in the church of falling short of our expectations. Christ who loves His bride gifts us with a heart to gently bear in love those in fellowship weakened and wounded by an increasingly angry and anxious world. Within the safety of fellowship, free to confess where we have failed obedience, pray for strength to persevere, and encourage one another to be Christ-like in view of an evil, dark world.

Our love and care for one another will not and cannot depend simply on our love for one another, but upon our love for Christ. I can only be humbly gentle, forbearing with patience with the supply I receive from Christ. Jesus said, “I will build My church.” The church’s membership and giftings are from Christ lovingly fulfilling this promise.

Church unity, as a consequence, is more than mere tolerance of each other. Rather, we share a united effort to battle ungodly desires in our hearts and strive together to conform to Christ, being a light in a dark world, fighting together for one another’s repentance and joy in spiritual healthiness.

We need a place, a people, safe to enter in with our troubled hearts to be reminded of Christ’s mercies. You and your neighbor are in need of Christ’s mercies in His church. Church family, let us prioritize one another’s spiritual health by obeying Ephesians 4:2 and invite others into such fellowship with His good news. All to the glory of our gracious, merciful God.

Heavenly Father, how I am in constant need of Your mercies. My restless heart is affected by an angry, anxious world. I am in need of Your peace. Those I love in this church family are in need of Your peace. Grant me Your peace that surpasses understanding that I may be humble, gently patient, to bear the burdens of Your church in Your holy and steadfast love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Devote Yourselves to Prayer...Together

 

“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” -Romans 12:12

A Godly desire for a vibrant prayer life will be tested in this world of pains and afflictions. Whether things are going well or poorly, whether in comfort or pain, rejoicing or weeping, I am to be “constant in prayer,” or faithfully devoted to prayer.

How do I persist in a vibrant prayer life when things are going well in my life? I am to rejoice in hope. How do I persist in a vibrant prayer life when in tribulation? I am to be patient. Whether I am rejoicing in hope or patient in tribulation, I gather strength from sweet communion by the Spirit with the heavenly Father through Christ in prayer.

Yet, we need help to obey this commandment of Scripture. To rejoice in hope, faithfully endure in all afflictions and trials, and faithfully devoted to prayer is a community project. The early church “with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14) and “devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42).

The hope of a healthy, vibrant prayer life of a follower of Christ that endures all things and rejoices in hope leans heavily on a local church that enjoys a healthy, vibrant prayer life together. Later in Romans 12 Paul commands us to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” A rejoicing hope is not enjoyed in isolation, but celebrated in the community of a church family. A tear is not to be shed in simple solitude, but grieved in the community of a church family. And all of this in a love for one another which enjoys a healthy, vibrant life of devoted prayer together.

Often, we are tempted that our value in friendships within a local church family is dependent on our own usefulness. Yet, we simply rejoice with those rejoicing and weep with those weeping. There is an end to our counseling and consoling, even an end to our usefulness in labors. Yet Christ’s ability has no end. When hope calls for rejoicing or afflictions test patience in lives around us, we are called to devote ourselves to prayer.

Beloved, do not simply give words or deeds as a church family, but devote yourselves to prayer. Pray for and with one another in love for one another in Christ regularly. May we, the building up of spiritual stones, be made into a house of prayer. By God’s grace we petition for and with one another with thanksgiving in our hearts that His peace that surpasses understanding guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Guards to rejoice in hope; guards to be patient in tribulation.

Heavenly Father, make us into Your house devoted to prayer, pleading for Your needed mercies for each other considering other’s interest above our own. Be glorified in Your praying people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.