Beyond Emmaus

This is the fourth in a series of posts exploring the roles ascribed to Christians by looking at the example of Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25-29.

See also:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Brother
• Part 3: Worker

As a Christian, how comfortable are you with the role of soldier, of knowing you are called to battle? I don’t think there’s any genuine believer who truly feels at home with the idea, and those who actually enjoy fighting might do well to reconsider their over-zealousness!

Confusion as to how we are to battle and who exactly we are fighting likely yields more contention both among and against Christians than simple gospel proclamation and gospel living does. My hope in this post is that we can have a better understanding of our role as soldiers and how we can fill that role while being a blessing to those around us instead of anathema.

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This is the third in a series of posts exploring the roles ascribed to Christians by looking at the example of Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25-29.

See also:

• Part 1: Introduction
• Part 2: Brother

Saved By Works

Here is a bold statement: A Christian is one who is saved by works. Now, before getting all sola fide, sola gratia and Ephesians 2:8-9 on me, let me explain. A Christian is not one who is saved by his own works. Rather, he is saved by the works of Jesus Christ. This is the inherent difference between man-made religion and gospel religion. These two opposing views are usually referred to simply as religion and gospel.

We are saved by the works of Christ, which is summarized in the book of Hebrews:

Hebrews 9:24-28
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

See also Romans 4:25 and Galatians 1:4, though there are ample more examples. This is the central message of the Gospel as presented in Bible, that Christ died to save sinners. We are saved by the works of Christ.

Saved For Works

The question that follows this statement is, “Why?” Why did Jesus die for sinners; what was his purpose?

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This is the second in a series of posts exploring the roles ascribed to Christians by looking at the example of Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25-29.

See also:

• Part 1: Introduction

A Brief History

Throughout Biblical history the people of God have been a family, and it is through this family that God chose to work to rescue a people for himself—from every tongue, tribe and nation—and make them a holy nation and a kingdom of priests. It began with God’s call of Abram out of the land of Ur (Babylonia, present-day Iraq) to go to a new land and settle there. God changed Abram’s name to Abraham and promised to bless him and make him a great nation and through him to bless all the families of the earth, thus proclaiming the gospel to him (Galatians 3:8). In his old age, according to God’s promise, Abraham had a son named Issac; Issac had twin sons, Esau and Jacob, and God chose Jacob to inherit the covenant promise made to Abraham. Jacob, whose name God changed to Israel, had twelve sons whose descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel. Of these twelve, God’s promise of an offspring to bless the whole world continued through the line of Judah from whom we get Jesse’s son, King David, “a man after God’s own heart,” from whose line would eventually come Jesus, the Messiah promised to Abraham (Isaiah 11:10; Romans 15:8-13; Matthew 1:1-16).

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