Author: Brian Burdett

“If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.” -1 Corinthians 9:12

This could be the greatest challenge for Christians in this present age of radical autonomy, independence, preference, comfort, and self-concern! Will we endure ANYTHING rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ? Do we love the lost more than we love ourselves? Paul certainly did!

To really answer these questions, we need to recognize how many obstacles we can inadvertently put in the way of the gospel. Things we don’t think about, things we think “everyone” knows or does, things we know to be our right to do our way. They certainly are our right, but in Christ, we have the strength to forgo our rights for the sake of lost souls! Let that soak in…

We must learn to think outside ourselves, our preferences, our traditions, our experiences and consider things from the viewpoint of unbelievers of different faiths (or no faith), cultures, ethnicities, ages, and experiences. We must recognize where many of the things we prefer or enjoy in our Christian life can actually prevent people from really listening with an open mind and believing the Gospel.

Anything that isn’t biblically mandated, we must be willing to set down for the sake of the salvation of those currently facing an eternity apart from God. Our love for those currently under God’s wrath must be greater than our love for having our way. As much as we might like our patterns, habits, preferences, politics, and traditions, if they aren’t mandated by the Bible, we should be willing to be quiet about them for the sake of saving others.

Take time to reflect on things in your daily life, your character, or your practice of your faith that discourage people from believing in Jesus. Can you endure changing those rather than putting an obstacle in the way of the gospel?

“But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.” – Mark 3:27

There’s a lot of good news packed into this verse! The context is Jesus casting demons out of people, which He often did. The Pharisees accuse Jesus of doing this by the power of Satan. That’s absurd, as Jesus points out. Rather, Jesus makes it crystal clear that the meaning of all this is that He’s vastly more powerful than the devil!

Satan is the strong man Jesus refers to in this verse. Jesus is the one plundering the household of Satan by overpowering him. With the inbreaking of God’s Kingdom, Jesus made evident to the devil and the world that Satan’s time of power was nearing its end. Though Satan had authority over this fallen world, Jesus came to earth and started rescuing precious human souls from the clutches of the devil.

With each person who puts his or her faith in Jesus Christ, another soul is taken from the devil’s grasp and relocated into God’s Kingdom. Each believer is part of the treasure Jesus plunders from Satan’s house! Satan can rage about it. He can attack. He can tempt. He can undermine. He can’t win, though. One infinitely greater and more powerful has come!

There is no power of the devil that isn’t broken and overcome by Jesus. Praise God that when we trust in Christ, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Our souls are made secure in Christ and we become God’s treasure, rather than Satan’s trophy!

“‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything.” – 1 Corinthians 6:12

In Christ, we enjoy tremendous freedom! Jesus died on the cross so that through faith in Him, we are forgiven our sins and reconciled to God, not by rule-following and good behavior but by God’s abundant, overflowing, amazing grace. We aren’t constrained by the over 600 laws of the Mosaic Law but that doesn’t many anything goes.

Our freedom in Christ isn’t an excuse to abuse our liberty or waste our lives in pursuit of trivial things. Christ died to set us free from sin’s power, so we can become like Him in the power of His Spirit. We must not rush back to being dominated by anything (food, drink, pleasure, power, phone, career, money, fame…) other than God. We must recognize where the exercise of our freedom hurts us and reject such indulgence. We must recognize when the exercise of our freedom hurts others and reject such selfishness.

Our true freedom is in Christ. We’re only completely free when we submit to His Lordship. We must not surrender our blood-bought freedom back to any habits, pleasures, or preferences that don’t glorify Christ. He alone must be Lord of our lives.

“In spite of all this, they still sinned;
despite his wonders, they did not believe.”
– Psalm 78:32

The Israelites saw the mighty work of God firsthand. They saw Him in a cloud, heard Him speak out loud, and witnessed His wrath for sin. Yet they sinned and struggled with real faith. They didn’t yield to Him as Lord of their lives, clinging stubbornly to their demands, agendas, preferences, and priorities.

Their experience in the wilderness is a vivid reminder that it isn’t enough to know a lot about God and the Bible. James reminds us that demons know a lot about God and the Bible! The Israelites had more firsthand, eyewitness knowledge about God than most of us will ever have in this world, yet they consistently failed and suffered for that failure.

Seeing extraordinary miracles isn’t a guarantee we’ll get things right. They might excite us about God for awhile but they don’t sustain us. Instead, we must submit to God in order to experience His blessing and salvation. We must choose daily to submit to God, to pursue Him, to walk in step behind Him. We must diligently seek Him in prayer, study, meditation, and worship. We must truly make Jesus the Lord of our lives, with absolute authority over every aspect of them. We must submit our work and our leisure, our family and our friends, our health and our wealth. All our time, talent, and treasure must be managed as a gift from God to be used for God.

If we simply profess to love Jesus and enjoy weekend worship without letting God rule every aspect of our heart, mind, and life we aren’t different than the Israelites. Like them, we’ll continue to struggle with sin and idolatry. Like them, we’ll still miss out on the full blessing and joy of a life lived in God’s will. Have you truly submitted to God?

“And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.’” – Mark 2:17

The religious of His day were baffled (in a bad way) about why Jesus would share a dinner table with tax collectors and sinners. These were the people on the wrong side of the culture wars of the day! Collaborators, traitors, the lewd and immoral. Yet, Jesus not only paid attention to them, He ate with them as if they had worth and dignity!

Jesus’ response to criticism for this was very clear and simple. These were the people He’d come to rescue. He’d come to those who were deeply aware there was something wrong with their lives in order to offer them salvation through faith in Him. He came to call them out of their sinful patterns and lifestyles and into renewed, holy life following Him. Jesus didn’t spend much time associating with those convinced that their goodness already covered them, because He knew they wouldn’t humble themselves to believe in a Savior.

Too often in modern Christian life, we aren’t much like Jesus. Either we completely surround ourselves with other believers, focusing our energy, attention, and resources on blessing those already saved (or at least convinced of their righteousness) or else we associate uncritically with “sinners” without the intention to actually introduce them to Jesus and call them to a transformed life. If we’re to follow Jesus, we must be out mingling and offering love and dignity to those outside God’s Kingdom, but we must do so with clarity that the invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to live a supernaturally changed life. Are you living Christ’s rescue mission for sinners made in God’s image?