footwashing

John 13

   Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
   He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, do you wash my feet?" Jesus answered him, "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand." Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, "Not all of you are clean."
   When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, "Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a
messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (ESV)

You don't need to wash your hands and face if you are a believer...you simply need to have Christ continually cleanse your feet. He does this through the accountability of other believers calling us to repentance and then interceding before us to the Father.

How great is the Gospel that saves and sustains.

in a few words

I recommend Alex's thoughts on conveying the Gospel in only a few words.

driscoll on the gospel

(HT: Z)
Facebookers click through to view the video.

the miracles of Luke 8

The last half of chapter 8 in the Gospel of Luke we see two miracles. Two amazing events that mark Jesus as God, as all-powerful and awesome. They also tell the tale of the Gospel.

The two miracles are the raising of a man's daughter and the healing of a woman with an outflow of blood.

Jairus' daughter was sick and dying. He approached Jesus to ask for her healing and Christ obliged. They began to make their way to Jairus' home.

Along the way, in the midst of a great crowd, a woman reaches out and touches the hem of Jesus garment hoping to be cured from a twelve year affliction. She had been ceremoniously unclean for all that time. Unable to truly enjoy fellowship, always feeling like an outsider. At times she probably tried to hide her condition so that she could interact with her people.

At the moment she touched him she was healed and Jesus asked for her. She came forward to acknowledge what she'd done and he sent her away, telling her that it was her faith that had made her well.

Meanwhile, Jairus' daughter had died. The mourning had begun when Jesus arrived. He went into the home and called for her to wake up...and she did. She woke from the dead and her spirit returned.

It is in these two miracles that we see two great truths about the Gospel.

We must be cleansed and healed.
We must be raised from the dead.

Neither of these are things we can accomplish ourselves.

The woman tried for years to find a cure, seeking every known doctor and remedy. It was only in Christ that she found cleansing.

Jairus' daughter was truly dead, so dead that she couldn't even believe that Jesus could raise her. It took the faith of her father, someone outside herself, and Jesus to raise her.

So, too, in our lives. We need cleansing from our sin that comes only through Christ and we need to be raised from the dead according to the will of the Father and the strength of the Son.

This is the glorious Gospel. It is bound up and wrapped up in Christ and not us. What a beautiful and awesome truth shown through the miracles of Christ as told by Luke.