God’s secret wisdom is a way of putting your life together with God at the center. This is what Jesus did. He did not ask, “What can I get out of this life on earth?” but, “What has the Father called me to do while I am here? How can I be a means ...

Paul speaks here of two kinds of wisdom—two ways of putting your life together: the wisdom of this age and God’s secret wisdom. It is important to grasp the difference so that we can choose which one to follow.

The wisdom of this age is a wa...

The fourth dimension of your new identity in Christ is perhaps the most important of all: if you are in Christ, you are wise (though you will still make mistakes). Christ is our wisdom.

Here is a simple definition of wisdom: the ability to p...

We have seen that in Christ, you are clean (though you still sin) because Christ is your righteousness. You are free (though you still struggle) because Christ is your redemption. You are holy (though you still live in the world) because Christ is...

What’s been taken out of the white-flour gospel? It says nothing whatsoever about becoming a new person in Christ.

The nourishment that God put in has been taken out, and the result is that many Christians have missed out on the substance th...

Perhaps you have made the switch from white bread to whole-grain bread. You were told that white flour has most of the goodness taken out of it, so you began baking your own bread, and it is fantastic.

Some of us have got used to a white-flo...

The fourth dimension of your holiness is that you are sent to the world. When Jesus says, “I consecrate [that is, sanctify] myself,” He is not talking about a gradual growth in holiness. He is the Holy One. He fulfilled everything that the Father ...

The third dimension of your holiness is that you are called. You may have heard the phrase that we are called to be “in the world but not of it.” That’s a good summary, and it comes directly from John 17.

Notice the words of Jesus: “I have m...

That is a staggering statement. You share in Jesus’ glory! This is the second dimension of your holiness.

Donald Grey Barnhouse was a church minister in Philadelphia. He conducted many weddings, but he never took money for doing them. This i...

In making you holy, God has put you in an entirely new position in relation to Christ and to the world. Four things are true of you in Christ: You are given, glorified, called, and sent.

The first dimension of your holiness is that you are g...

Here, Paul is talking about something that has already happened. “You were sanctified.” In this case, it is not an ongoing process. It is a completed act.

The word holy, or holiness, is used in two ways in the Bible. The original Hebrew word...

We have seen that in Christ you are clean, and in Christ you are free. Now we come to the third dimension of who we are in Jesus Christ: Christ is our holiness. Another word for holiness is sanctification. These words mean the same thing, and it i...

There is a wonderful line in Victor Hugo’s great book Les Misérables. It is the story of Jean Valjean, a heartless criminal. A bishop shows him great kindness, and it changes his life.

But later in the story, Jean Valjean’s past gets the bet...

Maybe you are thinking, It’s all very well to tell me that I am free, but I don’t feel very free. In fact, sometimes I feel totally defeated.

That’s not surprising. If you have thought of yourself as a slave for years, it’s no easy thing to ...

Notice the centrality of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is at the heart of everything that is truly Christian. The way in which you become free is not through a technique but through a person. Christ is our redemption. “If the Son sets you free, you wi...

What does Paul mean when he says that we have “died to sin”? Most of us find that sin is still pretty much alive, and sometimes very powerful.

If you are in Christ, you are now in a whole new position in relation to sin. You are not in the c...

Sin is a power. When it gains a grip in your life, it will not let go. Paul says, “Sin reigned” (Rom. 5:21). It is like a tyrant. It bossed you around. The impulses of sin were in the driver’s seat of your life. Sin was your master.

But now,...

The gospel touches the deepest issues of our lives, even the most powerful issues of temptation and addiction. Is Christ able to help you here?

If we are to be delivered from sin, we need more than a Saviour who is able to forgive our sins. ...

If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come. The heart of the Christian life is that you discover who you are in Jesus Christ, and then be who you are. We’ve seen that the first step in discovering our new ide...

In order to understand your purity in Christ, the first thing you need to know is that Christ is your righteousness. The second thing you need to know is that Christ’s righteousness is yours.

Imagine that you are living in a derelict buildin...

The issue on the last day will not be how righteous Christ has made you but how righteous Christ is for you.

Some think the important thing is how righteous we have become. If you put sugar into a cup of tea, it makes the tea sweet. In the s...

If you are to grasp and enjoy your new purity in Christ, there are two things you need to know, and they are both right here in this verse. The first one is that Christ is your righteousness.

Your faith does not make you right with God, nor ...

God justifies sinners. This is mind-boggling. You would expect this verse to say that God justifies the righteous. If God is just, surely He should be looking to justify people who have not broken His law. But nobody is righteous—not even one pers...

This is the first of the four dimensions of our new identity in Christ: when we are in Christ, we are clean, though we still sin. The word the Bible uses to describe this is justification. “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with...

This is one of the most marvellous statements in the whole of the Bible. In earlier verses, Paul reminds us that God calls ordinary, unimpressive human beings like us, who have nothing very much to boast about.

Then he says it is because of...

This is one of the hardest truths for us to grasp in all of the Bible. If the old has really gone, then why do we still face the same old temptations? Why do we still struggle with the same temperament?

The Bible tells us that we are a new p...

We have seen that the baby born in Bethlehem is described as a redeemer. Here we are told that they named him Obed, and Obed means servant. So the baby born in Bethlehem is a redeemer and a servant. And from him comes a future king: “He was the fa...

Don’t miss the wise counsel that can be gleaned from the story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz.</p

Wisdom for those who are older. Stay close to those who love you. Take an active interest in others, especially younger members of your family and the ch...

How will this child be a restorer of life and a nourisher of Naomi's old age?

The redeemer brings love. “Your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him” (4:15). The women are saying, “Naomi, th...

There was a close relative who was not willing to redeem. He could have helped Naomi, but he didn’t. Maybe you have had something like this happen. Friends or family could have helped you, but they didn’t, and you were disappointed. Help doesn’t a...