Putting on Christ I: The One Thing Needful | Behold Your God Podcast

Putting on Christ and the “One Thing Needful”

Welcome to another episode of the Behold Your God podcast. I'm Matthew Robinson, director of Media Gratia, and I'm here again this week with Dr. John Snyder, pastor of Christ Church, New Albany, and author and teacher of the Behold Your God study series by Media Gratia.

John, it's good to be back here. It's good to be back. We are going to do a short series on the subject of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. And like our series on following Christ, this is another phrase that we see used all through the New Testament, but it's one of those that we know that we should do.

We should follow Christ. We should put on the Lord Jesus Christ. But what does it really mean? And how do you do it? What are some practical ways of actually doing that week in and week out? And so for help on that, we're going to go to a fellow named William Mason.

And William Mason's most popular little book is called The Believer's Pocket Companion, The One Thing Needful to Make Poor Sinners Rich and Miserable Sinners Happy. This was written, we think, in the late 1700s, right?

Right. So not a Puritan book, but definitely a Puritan strength title. And we'll be putting links in our show notes at mediagratia .org for people, if you want to get a copy of this book, we would highly commend it to you.

We used this book as a book study here in the church. What? How long ago? Gosh, probably 10 years ago. Was it that long? Or maybe eight? Well, we've used it again since then. I guess it's been used twice because I remember teaching through it maybe within the last five years.

Okay.

William Mason’s Theology and Practical Christianity

So tell us about William Mason. Yeah. William Mason being a minister in the latter half of the 18th century, you know, what we find in him that I found so helpful is that we find the union of a solid theology.

So careful doctrine, you know, what we would call reform doctrine. But it's united to that warm, aggressive, practical, experiential Christianity. As all reform doctrine should be. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, and when you read Christian books, you do want to vary your diet.

If all you read was this type of book, you know, it's beneficial, but it's like a vitamin. It applies to one aspect. But there are sometimes where you have to read books that are, you know, they're not as warm.

They give you a lot of truth and you have to do a lot of the work to make it warm. And sometimes you read books that are really warm and they expect you to already know the doctrine. So, you know, you do want to be, you want to read widely within the good camp.

But these are some of my favorite. And William Mason, unlike some of his contemporaries, is pretty concise. The book is not a big book and he really gets to the matter. So that's beneficial. His, you know, when he says one thing needful, it's always, it's always difficult in life to narrow things down to one thing, you know, in our complex lives.

But it certainly is beneficial. It's great. It's a great help to us. If a person can kind of bring it all down to a central focus, you know, you think of a camera where you want your camera to focus on one aspect of something in a room.

So you make your camera really hone in on that. And that, that person, that object becomes very crisp. And it's not that there's nothing else in the room. It's not that there's nothing else to life. It's not that there's nothing else to the Christian life.

But you want your heart and your mind and your, your eye drawn to one thing. And so when he says there's one thing needful in Christianity, someone might jump up and say, wait, wait, wait, I have a different idea of what's needful.

Or there's a lot of things that are needful. Really what he's trying to say is this is a paramount importance. And this is the kind of thing that if you don't get it right, then nothing else in your religion really matters.

And, and I think that is going to be a real help to us.

Yeah. And just to, just to say, you know, William Mason isn't making this concept of one thing up. The Lord Jesus told us that, blessed are the pure in heart. And then later we read in Luke that in chapter 11, 33 and 34, this, this business about the eye of the lamp is your body.

And when your eye is clear or when your eye is single, your whole body is also full of light. But when it's bad, your body then is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness.

So what is this thing about being single or being pure in heart? Well, how many things are in a pure, you know, in a bottle of pure water? They're just one thing. Just, just being single minded. So it's, it's, if you're going to be single minded, then it's good that we have the right thing to be single minded about.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, Mason is in his book, he, he calls our attention to Christ dealing with Mary and Martha. And, you know, Martha, you're, you're troubled about so many things, good things, but one thing's needful.

So taking that it, you know, before we even get into what we do when we put on the Lord Jesus Christ, we want to kind of examine ourselves. What a person would honestly answer when you ask them, what is the one thing needful in your, in your life?

Spiritually, we're talking about as a Christian, what's the one thing needful? What they would say to that question is very revealing. What a church would say to that question is very revealing. I was not long ago with the church and, and it was a struggling little church.

And I asked them, well, what do you think is the one thing that's essential? I mean, if you're going to continue to exist. And there was a whole array of answers. And getting that answer right is important.

And what you say to that question really reveals a lot about you. But more than that, the choices we make, you know, if someone followed me around this week, they would know what I think the one thing needful is, you know, it doesn't matter what I say.

What does John think? Look, I can't live without this thing. Okay. There's a lot of nice things, but some things are essential. Some things are not optional. And live or die, I got to have this thing.

Or as a church, you know, the decisions we make here as a body, the things we do when we're together. What do we, what do our actions demonstrate to be our honest answer to that question? I think that's a hard question.

I think it's so hard that when you ask people that question, when I ask myself that question, it can be so painfully revealing. That it's, I find it personally difficult to get down to the roots of an honest answer.

When we think corporately about some things that we hear in the West, in America especially, that we think are all important in religion, you know, we, so as a body, well, what do we need? Well, we need some young families in here, you know, or we really need a young dynamic minister who can get in here and get some programs going and we can really get going as a church.

Very revealing, you know, who is our hope in? What is our hope in? When we think of ourselves, you know, maybe I think I feel like I need a new job. That's the one thing I need. You know, the thing that I'm doing with my, the most part of my life, if that was just better, then I would be OK.

Or maybe I need a, you know, a better spouse or a Christian spouse, or maybe I need a community of friends. And let's be honest, that's if you go to most church websites, that's kind of what they're trying to say.

Hey, come be a part of our community of people. You know, it's a community of safe, good people that you can come be a part of. That's what you think is most important. That's what we think is most important.

Very, very, very revealing. But Mason, that's not what Mason points to as being the most important thing.

Romans 13 and the Call to Put on the Lord Jesus Christ

Yeah, Mason helps us. He takes us to Romans 13 and he shows us what Paul was talking about there. Matt, you want to read us that passage?

Sure. Yeah. So this is Romans 13, 14. Actually, what is this? Verse 11 and 14. Yeah. Do this, Paul writes, knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. For now, salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.

The night is almost gone and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

So if we take that in its context, it's really such a helpful passage. But much more helpful if we see it in the context. Eleven chapters of doctrine where Paul has been laying out the desperate need of humanity and the extraordinary provision of the God man, the second Adam, the final Adam, you know, the last Adam has come and and what he's brought to us from the God that we hated, that we were enemies of.

And it's so good only the almighty work of the Holy Spirit in a person would enable us to really believe these things. And so chapter 12 and following Paul gives us some very specific down to earth ways that the mercies of God will move a man or a woman who has embraced Christ to have a life that's transformed from the inward to the outward in a way that makes us want to live as a living sacrifice.

And part of that is seeing the day that we live in the way God sees it. So, you know, from God's calendar, we could say from God, God's watch, not ours. Today is like the last part of a dark night. The dawn is coming salvation.

That is the completion of our personal salvation, the completion of the cosmic rescue where God will make all things new and all the effects of sin will be done away with the spiritual period of night is coming to an end.

It's almost gone. Christ is near. And so Paul's application, they're simple two things. Why would you want to live like the old you anymore? Put away that old lifestyle and instead put on a new lifestyle or then he says, put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so that all sounds so wonderful. But what we want to talk about is, gosh, like how does that happen? How do I get up in the morning and before my feet hit the floor, how do I start putting on the Lord Jesus Christ?

Putting on Christ by Faith

So I think one thing we have to start off with is that it's an act of faith. So it is like faith. It is always us looking away from ourselves to someone else, to God. And it is always a response to his initiative.

You know, I mean, we are surrounded by the talk about faith that says that faith is you initiating kind of with a hopeful attitude, what you would like God to do for you. You know, I mean, and good things like my marriage is a mess and this is bad.

So I want God to give me a godly marriage or my kids are a mess and they're breaking my heart. So I want God to fix my kids. And those are good things to desire. But that's not faith. Faith is when we come to the word and we see what he says specifically that he is and that he does for his people.

And we lay hold of that. We grab hold of that and bring it down and say to him, I'm going to live as if you don't lie to your people. And I'm going to depend on it that you will be as good as you say.

I remember the first thing that struck me about just the realities of faith as a believer, reading through Romans for the first time, studying through it really closely, is just how different this is from positive thinking.

You know, just what's really popular in our culture, visualize, you know, a better life and then it'll come true. Now, there may be some some good to that, but it's not a spiritual thing. And the difference between positive thinking, you know, PMA, positive mental attitude.

Well, it's it's better than just, you know, sitting around thinking that everything's terrible all the time. But that's not faith. Positive mental attitude is not faith or just thinking, well, I just think it's going to be OK.

Well, why? Well, because, you know, God's got this. Well, what specifically about who God is and what God has done in Christ in the gospel, are you putting all your hope in? That's faith. We're coming to God's realities and we're responding to those.

Realities. Yeah. And what you just pointed out, so important for all of us. We are not commanded by God to have a generally optimistic view of him. We are commanded by God to believe what he has said to us, especially as he has revealed himself through his son.

There are some very clear specifics. So it's not enough just to say, I really I just trust that God's going to do what's good. I mean, God does good things for people. And yeah. No, I am commanded to take the truths of Jesus Christ that he has taught us that the Old Testament foreshadowed that Christ accomplished that the New Testament epistles explained.

And it's my job to open the scriptures and to give some real study, some earnest study. How do these things fit together? What do they mean and how would they change everything and then respond to God through his word?

Yeah.

Christianity starts like that. Yeah, that's how we start. And then do we move on to something else? Well, no, it continues like that.

Union with Christ and the Beginning of the Christian Life

Yeah. So the Galatians passage where Paul has to deal with that issue, Galatians, you know, how did you start? Well, you start by faith in the work of Christ. Are you going to continue by your own willpower, you know, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?

Certainly not. So in Galatians three, we read this. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. So there in that in that very simple statement, Paul just brings the Galatians all the way back, like you said, to the beginning.

And he reminds them, how did all this life start? Did you clean yourself up? No. Did you keep all the rules? No. You you you responded to the person of Jesus Christ. And that's how you're going to continue it.

Now, you know, of course, when we say this and when we say that faith is based on what God says. And so we need a knowledge of what he says. We're not saying that everybody enters into the Christian life at the same level.

Yeah. It's not doctrinal regeneration. Right. So if you reach a certain level of understanding of doctrine, then you've put on Christ. Right.

So some guys here, some some men, women, children hear the gospel and it's just the bare essentials. But the spirit of God works and their eyes are open and their heart is engaged and their will is freed.

And with their whole being, as much as they understand, they grab it and say, this is life. And then others hear the gospel carefully explained by parents, by friends, by pastors, by teachers over and over.

And they harden themselves. And then one day God breaks through the iron bars, you know, kicks in the bronze door and they see it as if for the very first time. And when they embrace it, they're embracing it with a very intentional, specific understanding of these things.

Both of those are legitimate conversion. But it's still true. Christianity begins with what? With me responding to the realities of God that have come to me through the work and the person of his son.

And it's not as though there are not infinite riches for you, for us to continue to dig into and learn about and and respond to from now until the time we see him face to face. And of course, that will be the heaven of heavens is that that journey never ends.

So, you know, we we come in to this journey, into this kingdom by bare faith in Christ's word. We continue to do that, but we do progressively as our spiritual appetite is now to know this Christ. And so we want to know more about him.

And that that grows in time. And so that's in a sense what we're talking about here is we have to put on Christ by faith.

Returning to Christ Again and Again

Yeah. And the reason we want to spend so much time on this, you know, I mean, we haven't even gotten to William Mason's advice and the daily putting on. But it is just so easy, like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress shows where where Christian's on the path and he meets some people and he says, wow, like, you know, basically, where'd you come from?

And they say, oh, we just came from this little side road and jumped the fence and got right here over the wall. And Bunyan's like, you didn't come from way back at the cross like where I came and the burden that fell off your back into a tomb.

And oh, no, no. Our little city is just right next to the path. And this is an easier way. It is so easy to believe the lie of the enemy that you don't have to get a right start in Christianity. You can make up for it by running really hard the rest of the way.

But when we talk about putting on Christ, there is the presupposition that Paul has already given a lot of explanation about, especially, you know, in chapter three, that no works will justify you. It's only faith in the works of Christ.

Chapter four, what is the nature of faith? And then chapter five, who are you in? Who are you located in spiritually? Who defines you forever? Adam, the fallen man or Christ, the obedient man, the God man.

If we don't understand that we must be in Christ to draw upon him, we must be in Christ to have the right to come to him moment by moment, hour by hour, throughout the week and say to him, I am needy and you are sufficient.

And so the way I put you on back then, I'm going to continue that same act of clothing myself with you and your infinite sufficiency today. But if a man tries to skip that painful, sometimes humiliating act of repentance and faith, that initial act where I have turned away from all the lies and all the false hope of my unrighteousness, and I have abandoned everything that I once hoped in to trust in this person, Jesus, if he skips that, you can't make up for it by running hard later.

Yeah. Sometimes the only way to make progress is to turn around and go back, go back to Christ, go to the beginning and start from the right place.

Christ as Our Infinite Sufficiency

Yeah. So even before we get to that, how to do it, we want to really encourage you guys, whether you've been in church like Matt and I were for many years. I was 20 when I was converted. I was in the middle of a bachelor degree in Bible, you know, and I was teaching youth groups and preaching and only, you know, and God so kindly stuck a mirror in front of my face that I couldn't explain that you are a fraud, John.

And I and my response before had always been the same. I'll do better tomorrow, God. You just give me another chance. But finally, you know, brought to the end of yourself where you say, but that's all I'll ever be unless you rescue me.

And I don't know why you would want to, but you said you would. So I'm going to bank everything on that, you know. So union with Christ, a man turns from, turns to, and the Spirit of God places us in Christ in such a way that he now becomes our life, our all, our identity.

So that's the good beginning.

Sure. But it continues that.

Yeah, yeah. So it does continue. It's not just the gate that we open. It's the path that we walk. And, you know, if I were to ask you, like, well, Matt, why isn't that enough? Why isn't a good start enough?

You know, why can't I just open the gate and then sit down on the other side of the fence? I mean, what would you tell a guy?

It's like we said earlier, Christ is not just the gate, but he is the path. And when we think about our neediness and we think about his fullness, well, that's what we come to see, you know, in the moment of our conversion.

That doesn't change. We don't somehow become not needy as the years go on. But the great news is he doesn't become less sufficient for our need. And so we continue to have this interchange. We continue to bring our need to him.

And he continues to fill that need with his infinite fullness day after day, decade.

After decade. Yeah, if you think about it, the way God saves us brings such glory to him because it reveals the kind of God he is. I mean, we're just like little I feel sometimes I think like my life is just a little fragment of mirror that is supposed to be reflecting him to the world.

And there's dirt and film on there and it's very imperfect. But by the grace of God, it is a picture of God. If God gave us a giant box full of everything we need spiritually, the supplies we need to live the Christian life from now to the end, however long that's going to be 40 years, 10 years, five years.

We would be so I mean, we would be so nervous that like, man, have I asked forgiveness too many times? Yeah, I use it all up. Yeah, I think I used it all up in the first one to ration it out a little more.

Yeah. So can can I? Yeah. So he just would be a wreck, you know, trying to figure out how am I going to make this last? Because when I look in the mirror, I think I probably have used too much too quickly.

But instead, God has demonstrated his graciousness by giving us himself. He brings us to him. He unites us to himself through his son. And we come day by day and he gives. So there's that constant exchange of my like you mentioned, my neediness, which hasn't gotten any less.

But I have no right to fear that I'm that I'm, you know, actually emptying the tank of his of his grace. You know, like I don't know if you got much more for me, Jesus, in the little John compartment up there.

But no, he's infinite. So I come again and again and again. I need help to do to know and love and do your will today. But you are infinite. And so I'm asking you to give me everything I need for godliness today.

And and it's it's how we do that in some specific ways that we want to talk about in our next podcast.

Closing Announcements and Next Episode Preview

Let's take a short break and then we'll come back and bring all this to a close. One of the most encouraging things about attending conferences is when people drop by our booth to tell us how one of our studies or films helped or influenced them, their families or their church.

Eventually, we started asking if they would let us record their stories to share with you. This is Royal. We talked to him at the G3 conference about rethinking God biblically.

We watch it as a family devotional learning opportunity. We go through one of the men of the faith of the time to learn more about them and how that theology affects our lives today. So we spend a lot of time doing that.

And again, we watch it over and over again because you just you miss certain things or you just want to remind yourself of what's going on. Wonderful series. Wonderful series. I've never been a biography guy.

Theology guy is probably not a lot about biology, biographies. But consequently, having having saw the video series, I picked up probably a biography of everybody on the on the videos because it just it's so interesting.

And when you get those little vignettes, it tells you a little bit about them. But then you really do want to know more about them and what caused them to be so faithful toward God. And you hear about all the things that they're challenged with as well.

That's right. And when you hear about these great men who had all the challenges of their life, it makes it so that you say, well, if they can do it and they can persevere to the end, so can I.

For more information about Behold Your God, Rethinking God Biblically, visit the means of grace dot org. So again, putting on Jesus is another one of these phrases that we see in the New Testament. And it's so common.

It's something that we know that we should do. It's something that we hope we're doing. But maybe it's so common that we haven't thought carefully about what it is. And next week, we're going to take some help from William Mason.

We'll take three specific examples that he gives that can be practically helpful. And then we'll look at three aspects of Christ's person and work and ask, how would I in this process of daily coming to Christ with my need and drawing from him his sufficient supply?

How can these examples from his person and his work, how can I put on Christ in light of those things?

Yeah, yeah. And it's really thrilling because even though we will only have time to talk about three categories, those categories, we could spend years on those categories. And and that's just a few categories.

It's just, you know, I feel like the Lord is so kind to us. It's like he just he brings us out of the grave and he doesn't just tell us I'm not going to execute you, but he he brings us out. And there's this wide open land and he and he calls us to walk with him, you know, and to clothe ourselves with his son every day.

Thanks for listening. And be sure to tune in next week. Thanks for listening to the Behold Your God podcast. All the scripture passages and resources we mentioned in the podcast are available in this week's show notes at MediaGarantia .org slash podcast.

That's M-E-D-I-A-G-R-A-T-I-A-E dot O-R-G. You can also get there by going to TheMeansOfGrace .org. You can watch the podcast there through our YouTube channel or subscribe via iTunes, Google Play or anywhere you get your podcast feed.

The Behold Your God podcast is a production of MediaGarantia. If you're unfamiliar with the Bible study series, documentaries and other multimedia projects that we produce. Let me invite you to have a look around for materials you can use in your church, small groups, Sunday schools or family worship at MediaGarantia .org.

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Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next week.