Our Gym Membership Is Paid For- We Need to Go Workout- Today!

A few months ago my wife and I became members of a gym up the street from where we live. Each month a payment comes out of our account; but if you were to ask us how many times we’ve been able to actually go, our answer would probably be embarrassing. Lately we’ve been busy, and I’ll admit, 20 to 30 percent of our gym absence has been due to a lack of discipline on my part. The frustrating thing is this, the gym is paid for, but we’re not utilizing the equipment or the time that we’re paying for. Each month they take out a payment, and that’s if we go 7 days a week, or if we go 7 days a year. Again, the gym is paid for.

It’s the same with the Christian faith. Everything is paid for through and by Jesus. There’s no work for us to do outside of Christ that would please God for Him to forgive us and clear us of our sin debt. Our membership into God’s family is paid for through Jesus. When we turn from our love of sin and turn to Jesus as our treasure and hope, we are then justified. Not our righteousness, but His righteousness. Jesus is the One who paid the sin debt and satisfied God's wrath. When He rose again, God securely justified all who would trust in the Lord Jesus. Every sinner (all of us) who couldn’t pay to become a member of God’s family can now enter in and be accepted because of the debt Jesus paid. After Jesus saves us and makes us new, there’s a working out that needs to be done. There’s some discipline that needs to take place after having our sin debt paid for. Our "gym membership" is paid for, we just need to go in and workout.

This discipline (workout) produces godliness. We got work to do (Colossians 1:28, 29, Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 2:12). It’s what Jesus purchased for His people. In being members of God’s family we’re called to be disciplined. For example, Paul tells Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:7 “discipline” yourself for the sake of godliness” (NASB). Check this out- The Greek translation for “discipline” is the word gumnasia. We get the English words gymnasium or gymnastics from the Greek word gumnasia. So the Christian is called to hit the “gymnasium.” We’re called to discipline ourselves because of the work of Christ. Here are some vital Spiritual Disciplines that have been bought for us: Bible Intake, Prayer, Worship, Evangelism, Serving, Stewardship, Fasting, Silence and Solitude, Journaling, and Learning. I’m reading a book now titled, Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney. This is what he has to say about Spiritual Disciplines and how the Christian should activate each discipline in the pursuit of what has already been bought for us:

"A Bible story that illustrates another way of thinking of the role of the Spiritual Disciplines is in Luke 19:1-10. It’s the famous account of the conversion of the tax collector, Zacchaeus. Because he was so short, Zacchaeus was unable to see Jesus in the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus when He passed by. When Jesus came to the place, He looked up, called Zacchaeus by name, and told him to come down. The two went to the tax collector’s house, where he believed in Christ for salvation and resolved to give half his possessions to the poor and return with interest all tax money he had wrongfully taken.

Think of the Spiritual Disciplines as ways by which we can spiritually place ourselves in the path of God’s grace and seek Him, much like Zacchaeus placed himself physically in Jesus’ path and sought Him. The Lord, by His Spirit, still travels down certain paths, paths that He Himself has ordained and revealed in Scripture. We call these paths the Spiritual Disciplines, and if we will place ourselves on these paths and look for Him there by faith, we can expect to encounter Him. For instance, when we come to the Bible, or when we engage in any of the biblical Disciplines—looking by faith to God through them—we can anticipate experiencing God. As with this tax collector, we will find Him willing to have mercy on us and to have communion with us. And in the course of time we, too, will be transformed by Him from one level of Christlikeness to another (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). So again, by means of these Bible-based practices we consciously place ourselves before God in anticipation of enjoying His presence and receiving His transforming grace.

Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team for most of three decades, said, “The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted to be.” In much the same way, Christians are called to make themselves, by the Spirit’s power, do what they would not naturally do—practice the Spiritual Disciplines—in order to experience what the Spirit gives them a desire to be, that is, to be with Christ and like Christ. “Discipline yourself,” says the Scripture, “for the purpose of godliness” (NASB). Amen.

Our gym membership has been paid for. We need to go "workout," right now.

Amen.