Author: Mark Broadbent

Illustration: Fashion Designer

Mark Broadbent Illustrations , ,

Fashion-Designer-2Suppose you dream from an early age that you want to become a fashion designer. You do the research, and pretty quickly realize that in order to be successful you’re going to need to move to Italy, the fashion capital of the world.

So during school, you work harder than everyone else. You make sure your grades are high. You get part-time work on the weekends. You save as much money as you possibly can. While everyone else is out partying, you’re working. Then you finally get to university. Again, you study harder than everyone else. You take part-time jobs and save your money.

By the time university is finished, you’ve got enough money to get to Italy and set yourself up for the first 12 months. You’re well on your way to becoming a world-class fashion designer.

Then the unthinkable happens. There’s a financial crises and you lose everything. All your savings are gone. Your hopes have been shattered. There is no possible way you can get to Italy.

About six months later, you are surfing the internet and you come across a site run by a wealthy business woman from Italy. She describes how much she loves Italy and how she would do anything to help others experience life in her country. So she puts out an offer: If anyone wants to come to Italy, she will pay for their flights, put them up in an apartment, and find them a job. It seems ridiculous. Too good to be true. This is obviously some kind of scam. But you’re desperate. So you take a risk. And you send off your details and to your surprise she contacts you the next day with the flight details.

You’re still not sure if this is legit or not. You’re half expecting something to go wrong. But you decided to step out in faith and rock up to the airport. To your surprise the ticket is valid. You jump on the plane, arrive in Italy, and meet this incredibly generous business woman. She welcomes you to Italy, gives you keys to an apartment, and introduces you to a guy who is happy to give you a job in the fashion industry.

Now what did it cost you to go to Italy?

It cost you nothing. You did nothing whatsoever to deserve it. It was absolutely a free, unconditional gift.

But it cost you everything. Your old life in your home country had to die. You had to give up your native language. You had to give up your customs. You had to give up living with your friends and family.

Going to Italy cost you nothing, except your old life.

The same is true for us when we become a Christian. It costs us nothing. Jesus has paid for our ‘ticket’ in full. He has promised to take care of us. He gives us a purpose in life. It is absolutely a free gift. We do nothing to deserve it. But at the same time, it costs us our old life. The moment we become a Christian, we receive the Holy Spirit who wages war against our sinful nature. Our life is no longer our own, we now belong to God.

Becoming a Christian cost us nothing, except our old life without the Holy Spirit.

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FAQ: Can we live a life of deliberate sin and still go to heaven?

Mark Broadbent F.A.Q.'s , ,

tumblr_m2f7eczPF11qaol32The Problem…

If it’s possible to live a life of deliberate sin and still go to heaven, then some Christians might choose to take advantage of God’s grace and devote their life to intentionally sinning every day.

If it’s not possible to live a life of deliberate sin and still go to heaven, then some Christians might spend their life wondering if they are going to hell because of their ongoing struggle with sin.

Why we can live a life of deliberate sin….

1. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, can we live a year of deliberate sin, or a month of deliberate sin, or a week of deliberate sin, or a moment of deliberate sin? Where do we draw the line? And what happens if we have a bad week or a bad month or even a bad year?

2. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, does this mean that Jesus only paid for accidental sin? If so, is it even possible to commit an accidental sin? Isn’t all sin to some extent deliberate?

3. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, what do we do with sins of omission? The Bible teaches that sin includes both sins of commission (i.e. doing wrong things) and sins of omission (i.e. failing to do right things). A day spent avoiding doing wrong things is not necessarily a day without sin.

4. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, why did Jesus expect us to sin daily? In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus says: “Give us today our daily bread”. So we know that this is a prayer that Jesus expects us to pray daily. He then says: “Forgive us our sins”. So no matter how much we may try not to sin, Jesus fully expects that we will need to confess our sin daily.

5. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, how do we make sure we don’t start thinking that we deserve heaven because of our willingness to avoid sin? The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace “so that no one can boast” (Eph 2:9). If our willingness to avoid sin affects where we spend eternity, we would have grounds to boast because we would feel that we are better than those who don’t avoid sin.

6. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, why does the Bible teach that some Christians will get to heaven and have nothing to show for their life, but will still be saved? “If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

7. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, how could the Bible teach that we receive eternal life at the point of salvation? If the level of our sin affected where we ended up, our eternal destination could only be determined at the end of our life.

8. If we can’t live a life of deliberate sin, what do we do about the fact that our sinful nature continues to crave sin? “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it” (Romans 7:18-20)

What God does to motivate us not to sin. 

The Bible teaches that there are lots of reasons why Christians won’t want to live a life of deliberate sin. It’s just that none of these determine our eternal destination.

1. God motivates us not to sin by giving us the the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s job is to wage war against our sinful nature. There is no way a person can receive the Holy Spirit and stay the same.

2. God motivates us not to sin by reminding us of what He has done for us. We love because Jesus first loved us. We serve because Jesus served us. We forgive because Jesus forgave us. We live for God because Jesus died for us.

3. God motivates us not to sin by reminding us that sin is destructive. When a person becomes a Christian they ‘repent’. Repent means to change our mind. We know longer see sin as something to be embraced. We realize that it is destructive and that it destroys our relationships and our lives.

4. God motivates us not to sin by reminding us that He’s willing to discipline us. The Bible teaches that “the Lord disciplines the one he loves” (Proverbs 3:12). If we continue to embrace sin without any hint of repentance, God will discipline us so that we will get our lives back on track.

5. God motivates us not to sin by reminding us that there are rewards in heaven. The Bible teaches that where we spend eternity is determined by how we respond to Jesus. But our experience in eternity is determined by how faithful we were with the opportunities to serve God.

Conclusion

So in theory a Christian can live a life of deliberate sin because Jesus paid for all our deliberate sin. But in practice, there are many reasons why a Christian will find themselves not wanting to live a life of deliberate sin.

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ILLUSTRATION: Birthday Cake

Mark Broadbent Illustrations ,

tumblr_m74l4yO4jN1rrh9gto1_500Suppose this year for your spouse’s birthday you want to do something really special. So you decide to make a birthday cake unlike anything your spouse has ever seen. You do the research. You bake some ‘practice cakes’. And then finally after weeks of preparation, the cake is ready for the big occasion.

On the day of the birthday party I come around to your house early to help set everything up. I see the cake and think that it looks amazing. It is by far the most impressive cake I’ve ever seen. In fact, I’m so overwhelmed with how good it is, that I take it upon myself to add my own finishing touches.

I grab some whipped cream and pour it all over the cake. I then carefully place marshmallows all over the top. Then I finish it off by pouring out three large packets of m&m’s onto the cake.

Now of course this whole thing is a disaster. Firstly, it is incredibly rude for me to look at the amazing cake that you’ve made and feel like I’ve got to add to it. Secondly, the cake now looks terrible. In my attempt to add to what you have done, I have actually destroyed what you have done.

The same thing happens when we try to add to what Jesus has done on our behalf.

A lot of people believe that Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sin, but they don’t believe that His work is complete. They feel that they need to add to what Jesus did to make us righteous before a Holy God. So they end up trusting in a combination of Jesus’ work plus their own works to get them to heaven.

And again, this whole thing is a disaster. In the same way that it’s incredibly offensive for me to look at your amazing birthday cake and feel like I’ve got to somehow add to it, it’s also incredibly offensive for us to look at Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and feel like we’ve got to somehow add to it. And just as my attempt to add to your perfect cake actually destroyed it, any attempt we make to add to Jesus’ perfect sacrifice actually destroys His work on our behalf.

There is nothing wrong with doing good works. Christians are called to do good works in response to what Jesus has done for them. But it’s an entirely different thing again to look at the perfect Son of God and His work on the cross and conclude that it’s not enough to save us.

Jesus said: “It it finished”. We need to rest in that.

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ILLUSTRATION: The Knight and the Princess

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desktop_princess_dragon_knight_by_sarah_the_ninja_101-d37y8mkSuppose a princess has been locked up in a castle from the moment she was born. She’s being held captive there by an evil dragon. One day a knight in shining armor comes along. He risks his life to slay the dragon, and then offers to rescue the princess.

Now we’d naturally assume that the princess will jump at the chance to be rescued, but this is not necessarily the case. In order for the knight to rescue her, the princess needs to leave her old life in the castle behind, she needs to jump on the back of the horse, and she needs to entrust her entire life and future into the knight’s hands.

The same is true for us when it comes to Jesus.

We’ve been locked up in a prison of guilt and condemnation from the moment we were born. We’ve been held there by Satan, the most evil dragon of all. One day, our knight in shining armor, Jesus, comes along. He doesn’t just risk his life to slay Satan, He actually dies. Three days later He comes back to life and conquers death, conquers sin and conquers Satan. He does all of this in order to rescue us.

Now again, we would naturally assume that we will jump at the chance to be rescued. But in order to be rescued, we need to leave the prison of guilt and condemnation behind, we need to jump on the back of the horse and we need to entrust our entire life and eternity into Jesus’ hands.

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ILLUSTRATION: The Broom vs The Bucket

Mark Broadbent Illustrations ,

Straw Broom 46537Parable
Suppose there’s a certain room in a house that is completely covered in dust. A man walks into the room and begins to sweep using an old straw broom. Although it looks like the broom will remove the dust, it actually makes things worse.  As the man sweeps, the dust begins to lift off the ground and fill the air. So the man sweeps even harder. But the more he sweeps, the worst things get. Eventually the dust begins to choke the man so he gives up and walks out of the room.

A few hours later, a lady walks into the room and sees that it’s completely covered in dust. Instead of reaching for the old straw broom, she fills a bucket with water and washes the dust away.

Explanation
Here we find that the room represents a person’s heart. The dust represents their sin. And the old straw broom represents the law.

What looks like it will remove sin actually makes things worse.

The law does not eradicate sin. It simply just reveals what sin is. The Bible says: “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet'” (Romans 7:7)

In fact, the law doesn’t just reveal sin. The Bible teaches that it actually provokes it: “Sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting… When the commandment came, sin sprang to life…the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death” (Romans 7:8-10).

Trying to obey the law in an attempt to remove sin is just as futile as trying to sweep away the dust with an old straw broom. The more we try and obey, the more we realize how utterly sinful we truly are. The law doesn’t make us good. It just reveals that we are not good and that we are unable to become good. It reveals our need for a savior.

But then enters the lady with the bucket of water. The bucket represents the gospel.

What could not be done through obedience to the law, is accomplished through the death of Jesus. When a person places their faith in Jesus, all their sin is washed away. They are made clean before a Holy God.

The law is the diagnosis. The gospel is the cure. The purpose of the law is to show us our sin. The purpose of the gospel is to show us our Savior.

(Adapted from an illustration by John Bunyam in his excellent book ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’)

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ILLUSTRATION: Lifesaver

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MW_100804_SLSA_IRBRescue_0059Many people believe that a person becomes a Christian by committing their life in obedience to Jesus. As a result, they are never really sure if they are committed enough. But what if becoming a Christian has nothing to do with our commitment to obey Jesus, and everything to do with Jesus’ commitment to save us?

When a lifesaver is rescuing a drowning boy, he doesn’t demand that the boy commit to becoming a better swimmer, or promise that he get swimming lessons. He simply asks the boy to stop trying to save himself and to trust him.

The same is true when it comes to Jesus. When he sees us drowning in our sin and despair, He doesn’t demand that we commit to being obedient. He simply asks us to stop trying to save ourselves, and to entrust our life and eternity into His hands.

Becoming a Christian isn’t about promising to obey. It’s about waving our hands up in the air and declaring our desperate need to be rescued.

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QUOTES: Faith

Mark Broadbent Quotes ,

jesus-walking-on-waterMARTIN LUTHER
“Faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing…

Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace”

(from “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” Luther’s German Bible of 1522, Translated by Rev. Robert E. Smith)

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ILLUSTRATION: Police Officer

Mark Broadbent Illustrations ,

police-officerSuppose I decide that I’d like to become a police officer. So in order to get into the police academy, I head out into the city, find as many illegally parked cars as I possibly can, and then start writing out tickets. I continue to do this day after day, until eventually I’ve written out more than a thousand tickets. I finally feel like I may have done enough to prove myself, so I rock up to the police academy and show them records of all the tickets I have written.

Now of course this whole idea is riduculous. No one writes tickets in order to become a police officer. In fact, any attempt to write tickets before first being made a police officer is futile. The tickets would not be valid. They would be counterfeit.

A person does not write tickets in order to become a police officer. Rather they are first made a police officer, and then they won’t be able to help but write tickets.

The same is true in our approach to God. We don’t do good works in order to become a Christian. In fact, the Bible teaches that any attempt by an unbeliever to do good works in the sight of God is futile. Although their efforts may seem good to us, from God’s perspective they are counterfeit works.

The Bible says that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6), “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and that “a bad tree cannot bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).

So we cannot do good works in order to become a Christian, any more than we can write parking tickets in order to become a police officer. Rather we must first be made a Christian, and then we won’t be able to help but do good works.

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ILLUSTRATION: McDonalds

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Mcdonalds-95-logoSuppose I walk into McDonalds one day and I ask for a Big Mac. The man serving me politely asks me for $4.80. So I reach for my wallet only to realize that I left it at home. Usually I would walk away, but I am really hungry so I begin to plead with the man serving me. I tell him that I’m really sorry I left my wallet at home. I then ask him if there is anyway that he can give me the Big Mac for free. Of course he says no. But I don’t give up and I tell him how I will never do anything like this again if he could just find it in his heart to give me the Big Mac. So eventually he gives in and gives me the burger.

A week later, I am hungry again so I walk into the same McDonalds store and see the same man that served me last week. Again I ask for a Big Mac, and again he tells me that it will cost $4.80. So again I reach for my wallet and again I have left my wallet at home. Despite the fact that this is extremely embarrassing, I ask him if he can once again find a way to give me the Big Mac for free. It is even more difficult to convince him this time, but eventually he gives in after I explain that this is the absolute last time.

A week later again, I go into the same McDonalds & see the same guy working there. I again ask for a Big Mac and find myself in the same situation. For a third week in a row, I have forgotten my wallet. And this time, no matter how hard I try, the man serving me is not going to give me the Big Mac for free.

But what if I have a friend who feels sorry for me? Without me knowing, he goes up to the man behind the counter and says: “Here’s $1,000. Give that guy who keeps forgetting his wallet whatever he asks for”. That would change everything. The next time I ask for a Big Mac and  realize I don’t have my wallet, the guy serving me is going to ask “Do you want fries with that?”

Why?

BECAUSE MY FRIEND PAID FOR ME!

The same is true for us in our approach to God. So often we ask God for forgiveness, promising that we’ll never ever sin again. But within days, sometimes within hours, we have already broken our promise. So we go to God again, begging for His mercy, once again promising that we’ll never sin again. But over and over again we break our promise.

But what if we didn’t have to beg God to forgive us? What if we didn’t have to keep hoping to catch God in a good mood? What if we didn’t have to keep promising to do something that we know we can’t do?

Christians can be sure that they are forgiven because Jesus actually paid for their sin in full. It would be unjust for God to punish them for their sin, when Jesus has paid the price for them to escape God’s punishment.

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