01
Dec '20
For His Name’s Sake
01
Dec '20
Lately I’ve been reading the Psalms for my devotions. One of the scriptures I recently read was Psalm 25:11: For Your Name’s Sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. The phrase For Your Name’s Sake caught my attention for a moment. but I was so intent on finding food for my current need, I moved right past it not realizing I passed up a meal.
A few nights later I landed on Psalm 23. Although it’s a familiar Psalm, the only one I’ve memorized, reading it again was comforting. To my surprise at the end of verse 3, there was that phrase again in Psalm 23:3b … He leads me in paths of righteousness for His Name’s Sake. I’m embarrassed to say after all the times I’ve read this Psalm and memorizing it, I never bothered to dig into what it actually meant.
Let’s discover the importance of it together. First, let’s start with a few other scriptures with the same or similar wording:
For you are my rock and my fortress; and for Your Name’s Sake you lead me and guide me. Psalm 31:3Thus says the Lord God; It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the Sake of My Holy Name … Ezekiel 36:22aAnd you will be hated by all for My Name’s Sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:22Nevertheless He saved them for His Name’s Sake, that He might make His mighty power known. l John 2:12
I soon realized these words meant for the sake of revealing God’s character and His glory.
The Bible is not about me – it’s for me.
In the verses above, we see God addressing a situation or action that occurs for us and for the sake of exhibiting His character and His glory. The Bible is about our Father, His love for humanity, and His desire for a personal relationship with each of us. God is significant to everything, the foundation of our existence, and is our Beginning and our End.
Questions began to pop into my mind. Am I living out God’s character in my life? Do I leave question marks in people’s minds when I interact with them? Do they wonder what kind of God I serve when I act in a way that doesn’t look like the God I say I serve?
Our God is righteous.
Psalm 23:3 says He leads us in paths of righteousness (uprightness) so we are upright like Him. God offers us free grace, freedom from sin, a new character (His), and all of the guidance we need to be like Him. As we walk with Him, He calls us to display a character so like His that when others interact with us they can look through us and see Him.
What if my lifestyle isn’t upright?
Then who God is won’t be revealed through me. The world will see a distorted view of God and what He’s like. God is trusting us to realize the importance of His name. How we do life reflects on His name and character, and the witness we’re called to be is often tarnished by how we live our lives. Knowing we have the responsibility to live our lives for His names sake is quite a challenge – it calls us to live upright lives.
We can show a frightened and stressed world there is a God who offers them peace and comfort.
We have a Father who offers freedom from sin, longs to teach His ways, desires a personal relationship with us, and brings the peace we all long for. Let us embrace His character as a part of ourselves so the world sees Him through us. When we realize the Bible is for us and given to us for His sake, we can be sure He will not allow us to fail in serving Him if we live lives that reflect His character.
Author:
Church development at Faith Assembly
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04
May '20
The Righteousness of God
04
May '20
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” -2 Corinthians 5:21
Jess and I had communion this last Sunday. It’s a fascinating sacrament. We do it to remember this: the blood of Jesus washes our sin away, and at the same time, God places the righteousness of Christ on us. It becomes the lens God uses every time he sees us. Theologians call it, “Imputed Righteousness.” This righteousness was a concept that I did not understand until my sophomore year in Bible College. But I didn’t learn it in a classroom.
A floor mate of mine loved Jesus. Let’s call him Gus. Gus loved Jesus so much that he became known for it in a dorm full of Bible majors. Like many colleges, I remember we’d have late-night heart-to-heart conversations. Everyone would listen as a guy shared his life story. Then there would be a respectful silence before we responded to build that person up, to encourage them.
When Gus was in the discussion, he’d start his response with a slightly longer version of the same thing he said every morning while greeting people.
For example, let’s say I just finished sharing my life story. After the short silence, Gus would get up, put his hand on me, and look me in the eye, “First off, Phil, do you know that you are the righteousness of God? That when God looks at you, he does it with all the limitless love he has for his perfect son Jesus, and it brings him unimaginable joy to even look at you?”
When Gus first said something like that to me, I told him I understood. But I’ll be honest; I didn’t, not yet.
It would take a few more mornings of, “Good morning, Phil!”
“Good morning Gu-”
“Did you know that today, God sees you as righteous?!”
At 26 minutes into the Sunday morning service on April 26, Pastor Jon articulated imputed righteousness. Every time we take communion, that beautiful doctrine is there. I honestly can’t tell you how I grew up all those years in the church and missed it.
However, I can tell you this. Jesus shed his blood so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. The more you remember that, the more it will change your life.
And if you remind others, it could change their lives too.
If you’re reading this and desire to know more about Jesus, contact us. It will absolutely change your life. We are here to have that conversation when you’re ready.
Author:
Phil Arellano
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