Category Archives: regeneration

A Man Among the Tombs

Posted on October 5, 2008 | Leave a comment
“They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes” (Mark 5:1).

The work that Jesus did in the country of the Gerasenes (Mark 5:1-20) was much like what He does for sinners today.

1. He frees us from the dominion of sin and Satan. “For He was saying to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’” (Mark 5:8). It’s a comfort to know that when the Lord commands, even the demons obey Him. They left the man, and for the first time in years he was free from their bondage. When we are converted by the grace of God, we too are freed from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:14) for the first time in our lives.

2. Jesus clothes us. “And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15). This man had been wandering naked among the tombs for a long time (Luke 8:27). After Jesus frees Him we find him clothed and sitting at the Lord’s feet.

We, in our sins, are naked before God. In Genesis 3:7 Adam and Eve realized that they were naked. They tried to cover themselves with fig leaves, but God wasn’t fooled. This is the same that we do when we try to cover our sin with our own (imagined) righteousness. But only God can clothe a sinner, and it takes the shedding of blood. In Genesis 3:21, God clothed our parents with skins. Blood was shed. And by the blood of Christ we are clothed in His righteousness. “He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses” (Revelation 19:13-14).

3. Jesus takes us out of the land of the dead and puts us in the land of the living. This man had been living among the tombs and had little or no contact with the people of the country. We too, without Christ, are among the dead (Ephesians 2:1, Romans 5:12). But the Lord makes us alive and adopts us into His family. “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19, KJV).

4. Jesus puts us in our right mind. “And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind” (vs. 15). Sin and Satan cloud and confuse. Only with a new heart and cleansed mind can we think clearly about anything.

Just notice the change in the man. He was breaking chains and cutting himself with rocks (vs. 5). Now he is sitting at the feet of Jesus in total submission. If the Lord has put us in our right mind, we should respond in the same way: by sitting at the feet of Jesus, wanting to follow Him (vs. 18), being obedient to Him, and telling others about Him (vs. 20).

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Gospel of Mark, Jesus, regeneration, sin

A Picture of Salvation

Posted on September 22, 2008 | Leave a comment

“Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. 6 And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’” (Ezekiel 16:2-6).

“Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. [1] 11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.” (Ezekiel 16:9-11).

This is one of my favorite Old Testament passages. The Lord here is certainly talking to Israel as a nation; any interpretation without that in mind will be faulty. Still, there are some definite applications for us.

Like Israel, we come from sinful parents (Psalm 51:5) who cannot pass the grace necessary for life down to us; instead, they pass down sin and death (Romans 5:12). Our parents cannot wash the filth of sin from us. They can’t wash us with sanctification. They can’t clothe us with righteousness. We are as children “cast out on the open field” and “wallowing in (our) blood.”

But God says, “When I passed by you and saw you…” Just as He said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people” when they were in Egypt, so He saw us, and it was by no accident that He passed by.

Notice that He says “live” while we are polluted in our blood (sin). There is no cleansing prior to this; the first step is for Him to say “live!” And it is said with power that cannot be resisted.

Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:3-5 that we were “children of wrath” who were dead in sins. It is while we are dead that He makes us alive. What comes next? In Ezekiel 16:9-11 God tells Israel that He had washed her and clothed her, just as He does to His children today (Titus 3:5).

So consider the picture of the newborn baby cast into the open field without any care. The Father comes along, takes her up, cleans her, clothes her, and cares for her in every way. What can she boast about? And how much does she owe to Him?

→ Leave a comment

Posted in regeneration, salvation, sanctification, sin

Sow, then Sleep

Posted on July 31, 2008 | Leave a comment
And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.(Mark 4:26-28)Our Lord says that after the farmer has completed his sowing, he can rest. He doesn’t even know how the seeds grow; much less can he make them grow. So is the work of grace in the hearts of men.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

Note that this is God’s kingdom. Thus, it is God who is in control. The Spirit is working quietly, yet He is working. As the seed germinates under the soil while we sleep, so the kingdom grows and advances in the hearts of men, even while we cannot see it.

“This clearly defines the realm of our responsibility. We must sow. We must reap. There our operations cease. The mightiest work is Divine. The soil in which we sow is the realm in which God alone can work. But it is for us to know that He is working there, even through the long wintry days when the results of our toil are not yet visible. Happy indeed are we if we learn to work in our appointed place, and then to wait in double assurance of our limitation and of His power” – G. Campbell Morgan.

Once the seed is sown, aside from watering the farmer can contribute nothing. We also contribute nothing to the work of grace. The Spirit causes life in the heart. Ephesians 2:1 says that it is God who quickens, or makes alive.

There is a great application to this – a great comfort to those who sow. Once you have planted your seeds, the outcome is not in your hands. This doesn’t mean to stop sowing or watering. But it does mean to take your rest and wait patiently on Him. “He sleeps and rises night and day.” Plant your seeds and rest. “The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it” (James 5:7, NASB). There may or may not be a harvest, but God will not hold you accountable for that as long as you have sown the good seed of the Word of God. And remember, the harvest may not come until you are gone.

“Take the sweet sleep which God gives to his beloved, the sleep of perfect confidence, such as Jesus slept in the hinder part of the ship when it was tossed with tempest. The cause of God never was in jeopardy, and never will be; the seed sown is insured by omnipotence, and must produce its harvest. In patience possess your soul, and wait till the harvest comes” – C. H. Spurgeon.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in evangelism, Gospel of Mark, regeneration