God Loves… Himself

Genesis 15:1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.” 2 Abram said, “O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” 4 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” 5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8 He said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” 9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. 11 The birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. 12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” 17 It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

In this passage we see once again that it is God who comes to Abram and commits Himself to do what He has said, but again it is not because Abram was a good man with merits. Abram had done nothing but sin and yet we see God working with Abram by grace. Earlier in Genesis God had made promises to Abram, but here we see Abram wondering about the promise. God stated the promise and Abram believed the promise. The text tells us that this was reckoned to him as righteousness. We see the glory of God in the Gospel of grace alone in this. Abram was just wondering around as his forefathers had done, but God came to him and made a promise to him. This promise was based on the purposes of God and came to Abram apart from anything he had done. God has to be the initiator in the Gospel or it is not grace alone. God has to show grace apart from worth and merit or it is not grace alone. This is so clearly seen in God’s dealings with Abram.

Why did God reckon righteousness to Abram when he believed the promise? There are different ways to approach this, but perhaps the best way from the biblical history is to look at it from a Christ-centered view. Faith itself is not righteousness as it is the gift of God, so the person with true faith is one that has been given the gift of faith. Once a person has faith, that person is in some way united to Christ and so righteousness is imputed or reckoned to that person. The righteousness, however, that is imputed is the righteousness that Christ worked while He was incarnate and on earth. The righteousness that was reckoned to Abram, then, was the righteousness that Christ was going to work and Christ was the promised seed of Abram. This is so glorious that the seed that was promised to Abram was the One who was going to work the righteousness that was given to Abram.

We then see the grace of God not only making the promise and giving Abram faith, but He makes the promise based on a covenant in which He basically staked His Divinity on carrying out the promise. This is sheer and uncompromised grace. God took the initiative in coming to and calling Abram, He gave Abram faith to believe that one of his descendants would be the Savior, and He then “walked” between the pieces of the animals which stood for His saying may this happen to Me if I don’t do this. We don’t see Abram making any promise at this point to do anything for his part of the covenant. This was the grace of God on display and for all to marvel at how God is self-sufficient and has no need of human beings to help Him in any way. This also shows us how God is working to fulfill His promise of a curse to the serpent as well. God fulfills His promises of curse but also of blessing. He is sovereign and all-powerful and no one can stand in His way to either curse or carry out His promise that He fulfills by grace alone.

Genesis 11:31 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans in order to enter the land of Canaan; and they went as far as Haran, and settled there. 32 The days of Terah were two hundred and five years; and Terah died in Haran. 12:1 Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” 4 So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Out of all the people on earth at that time, why did God choose Abram to call out and go to the land that would become Israel? Why did God promise to make Abram into a great nation and bless him? It is a haunting thought to think about this when one thinks of why God does things. Abram was most likely a pagan in the land of Ur who worshipped false gods. But we must also remember that while God operated on sovereign grace, this grace was also connected with the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. The Bible, though some think of the genealogies as boring, gives us a direct link from the seed of the woman (Seth) to Abraham. This is vital. In Genesis chapter 5 a genealogy is given that traces the line of Seth from him to Noah. Then in Genesis 10 we have the lines of the children of Noah traced, and the blessed line of Shem is traced to Tera (Abram’s father) and Abram himself. What we see, then, is the promise of God to crush the head of the serpent being remembered as we see the seed of the woman continuing on. By sovereign grace God makes a line from the woman and then takes Abram from that line.

On the one hand it is easy to get lost in the genealogies and miss the bigger point, but all of this is still the plan of the sovereign God who saves sinners by grace alone. The curse of God on the serpent is grace to those who will be delivered from the bondage of being children of the serpent and become children of God by grace alone. But if we did not have the Scriptures giving us the sovereign grace of God in setting out this line by grace, all we would see is the sovereign grace of God choosing one man from a group of idolaters and starting a nation through him that would eventually be the physical line of Christ Jesus. In the New Testament, all the spiritual seed of Christ are in the line of the seed of the woman. There is nothing about works or merit for salvation, it is all of grace and nothing but grace. Here we see the intent of God to show how much He loves His own glory and how much the love within the Trinity flows. God saves sinners apart from anything in them to make them meritorious or desirable.

There was nothing but sin in Abram by nature or action when God chose Him. The Scripture gives us no reason at all why God would choose Abram but that God chose Abram. No reason is given why God chose Abram from all the other people on earth to be the father of a nation. No reason is given why God decided to make Abram great and bless him. What we see, when the Lord graciously opens our eyes, is the beauty and marvel of God being moved by Himself to keep His promise in crushing the serpent and saving sinners. What we see is the grace of God which is always moved by God’s love for God rather than anything found in sinners. How easy it is to get lost in trying to figure out this and that and simply miss the real glory of the passage and that is God’s hand of grace working a way to manifest the glory of His grace and the grace of His glory. It is God on display in this text and not another. We must learn to view Scripture through the lenses of God’s love for Himself and His glory rather than focusing on Abraham. We must learn to view Scripture through the lenses of the will and plans of God rather than the will and plans of men. Humanism and idolatry are there when we focus on man rather than God.

In Genesis 1 and 2 we see nothing, but then God created. In Genesis 3 we see sin, but then the grace of God. In Genesis 6ff we see the sinfulness of man and the judgment of God, but Noah was shown grace. Then in Genesis 11 we see an idolatrous people as part of the Chaldeans, but God. It is just like in Ephesians 2:1-3 where we see man as dead in sins and trespasses just following the ways of the world, “but God” is what happens in verses 4-5 when He makes man alive because of His love and also because of His grace. It is so common in our day to point men to self and to the will of self, but Scripture knows nothing of that. Instead of that, it looks to the inability and helplessness of man and points man to the ability and help in the free grace of God.

Genesis 6:1 Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. 13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. 14 “Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch.”

In this passage we see the great issue of Scripture, the sinfulness of man and yet the grace of God. As time went on the proliferation of the race continued, but it seems that sin continued at a greater pace. Those who were of the line of the woman were called the sons of God, but the others were referred to (in this text) as the daughters of men. It was in this mixing of the lines that it would seem that the seed of the woman (as promised by God) was in danger. Satan knew the promise of God and he knew that God was working through the line of the woman to bring about the fulfillment of his (Satan’s, the serpent) curse. He went to work in an effort to corrupt that line and it appeared that he had succeeded. But God held that line in his hand and throughout the Old Testament that while that line appeared to be in great danger, the sovereign hand of God in bringing grace to His people and the curse on the serpent never wavered in truth.

Look at the evil of sin. It has spread to the whole population and it appears that virtually all men were in rebellion against the Creator. It appears that of all the men on the earth only one man was different, and that man was Noah. The whole earth was corrupt and filled with violence, but Noah found grace in the eyes of God. The wickedness of men was great, but Noah found grace in the eyes of God. Every intent of the thoughts of men were evil and that continually, but Noah found grace in the eyes of God. While some want to read this text as if Noah was a good man and was faithful to God and so God gave Him grace and mercy, I would argue that this is exactly backwards and it is also not the order that the text gives us. In verse 8 it tells us this, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.” Noah first found favor (grace) in the eyes of God and then Noah was a righteous man who walked with God. Men only walk with God by grace and not because they are good people.

God destroyed everything on the earth with water and every breathing animal except for Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark drowned. We see the power, holiness, and justice of God; yet we also see the glory of the grace of God. Noah was born a sinner and deserved death as well. Noah was a practicing sinner and deserved death as well. But Noah was shown grace by God. Out of all the men on the earth God chose Noah and gave him grace. Let us admire and worship this God and the glory of grace as well as the glory of holiness and justice. The ark, on the other hand, points us to the Messiah who was to come. There is another day of judgment coming and only those in the ark of Christ will be saved. All that Noah did in some way depicted the Christ who was to come and who would carry out the crushing of the head of the serpent. All that happened in the flood set forth the glory of God’s grace in choosing out one man and his family. Let us not focus on Noah, but let us admire the wonder of grace. Let us look at Christ who saves sinners who are no better (and perhaps worse) than others and yet He saves them for His own name’s sake. Behold the glory of grace and may we look to nothing but grace for help and hope.

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. 8 They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” 14 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

It appears that the human race did not last long in the Garden before sin entered the human race. One can argue about when sin entered, but it appears that the woman was coveting what the fruit would do for her in rebellion against God. Genesis one ended by God declaring that all He had created was good. Genesis two, though many differ on this chapter, gives a different view on creation regardless of how one views it. Then Genesis 3 starts and humanity is plunged into sin very quickly.

Immediately the man and the woman knew that they had sinned. They sewed fig leaves together to cover their nakedness, but of course that was not something that would work. The man blamed God and the woman and the woman blamed the serpent. God’s words to the serpent are interesting. He cursed the serpent, but in cursing the serpent the first (protoeuangellion or first good news or first Gospel) Gospel was proclaimed to the human race. While Romans 9:11 sets out the glory of grace by telling us that “the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,” and then in verses 15-16 He goes on. “For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Romans 9 tells us with great clarity that grace comes to sinners because of God and not because of what a man wills or does. Grace comes to sinners because of the mercy and grace of God and that alone.

But in the Garden we see that the Gospel of grace alone is spoken in the context of a curse on the serpent. It was not even spoken directly to a human being, but was spoken directly to the serpent. The man and the woman had sinned and then they did nothing but sin even more by blaming God and others. The response of God to them was mercy and grace. There was absolutely nothing in them that could have moved Him to show grace to them, but He promised grace. There was nothing about them that could have merited His favor, but God showed grace. In His wrath and judgment on the serpent He demonstrated His plan to manifest His grace to sinners. In reality the Old Testament is a map of His plan to bring forth the Lord Jesus and crush the serpent while giving eternal life to sinners. In Christ we see the judgment on the serpent and his seed, yet we see grace to the seed of the woman who are those purchased by Christ.

The earth and all things in it were created and planned by God as a means of Him manifesting His glory. Even when sin entered the world by the deception of the serpent, God demonstrated the glory of His grace then and what was to come. When we keep our eyes on the plan of God from all eternity to manifest His glory and the glory of His grace, we can see that sin did not take Him by surprise and was in fact part of that eternal plan. No, God did not work sin in the serpent and He did not work sin in the Adam and Eve. But all of this was part of His plan. By keeping our eye on this eternal plan we can see the Old Testament as God’s planning to put His grace on display. But even at the very beginning, the grace of God was seen in that He saves based on Himself.

Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. 32:18 who shows lovingkindness to thousands, but repays the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God. The LORD of hosts is His name;

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

How does the Lord draw His people to Himself? Is it by what they do or is it by what He does? Is His drawing them to Himself based on their character of His? As the verses just above are viewed, we see that this drawing and this electing took place from eternity past. This should clear the way and help sinners to see that they have no way of making themselves acceptable to God and they have no way of coming to the Lord on the merits of their works and abilities. God loved His people with an everlasting love and because of that He draws them with lovingkindness. People don’t come to God based on their own love, works, or choices, but because of God’s love, works, and choices. People are drawn by God to themselves and as such they should seek Him to draw them to Himself rather than try to please Him by their own fleshly works.

It seems as if even in the “Reformed” world today that evangelism is nothing more than what an Arminian or even Pelagian would say and do. While the theology may or may not be a little better, it is the same methodology and the stress is put upon the sinner to do something in his or her own strength. This couldn’t be any more wrong. God must draw the person if they are going to come to Him and the person that thinks s/he comes to Him in his or her own strength is sadly mistaken, not to mention deceived. As Jesus said, “Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me” (John 6:45). It is not those who have decided to come who come, but when the Gospel is preached in truth people will see that they must come when taught of the Father.

This may seem like such a small thing to so many, but this is an utterly vital point in the Gospel of grace alone. It is not the strength of man and the will of man that brings men to God, because that is impossible. Men are totally depraved and they hate God and are at enmity with Him. Nothing will overcome the enmity of their nature but grace and grace alone. Sure enough men think that they love God when the Arminian (or an Arminian in Reformed dress) tells the person that God loves them since men will love those that love them, but men must be reconciled from the heart to love the true God. Men must have a new heart and they must be drawn by the grace of God with cords of omnipotent power if they are going to come.

In Isaiah 53 we saw (Gospel of Grace Alone 23) all the pronouns and of how the Servant (Christ) suffered in the place of sinners. In the sufferings of Christ, both body and soul, He purchased the bodies and souls of His people. He purchased the Holy Spirit for them who would convict them of sin and give them new hearts. He purchased love and grace for them so that they could be drawn by that lovingkindness based on Christ rather than themselves. Oh how this great and glorious Gospel is set forth in Scripture in both Old and New Testaments, but men try to bring some little work at some point in it. They try to bring some little work in the coming to Christ or making a decision for Christ. When they do so, however, they deserve to hear the words of Paul as he condemned those who would add works to the Gospel. The Gospel is of grace alone and men must bow in both heart and mind to the sovereign Lord who alone can draw by His grace and save by His grace.

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

In this passage the word “grace” is not mentioned, but the words “Gospel” and “Jesus” are also not mentioned. Nevertheless, we have a clear declaration of certain aspects of justification by grace alone. We see that sinners are saved from their sins because of the acts of another. Sinners are saved not because they deserve this, but because they don’t deserve it. The text is speaking of a Servant, and that great Servant is Christ. This Servant came to save sinners for the glory of the name of God and not because anyone deserved anything but wrath. This Servant came to serve and not to be served, which clearly shows that this is a Gospel of grace alone.

Why did Christ bear the griefs and carry the sorrows of others? In the eyes of the world He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God, which in one sense He was. But all of those things were happening to Him because the wrath of God was poured out upon Him as He stood in the place of sinners. Why would God treat this Servant (His Beloved Son and the Son of God) in such a way? Was it because sinners deserved this or because God deserved for His glory to be manifested at the cross of Christ and the salvation of sinners? It was because of what God deserved. Christ suffered the wrath of the Father as He took the sins of sinners upon Himself and so the glory of the grace of God, the justice of God, the holiness of God, and the love of God shone forth.

This Servant was pierced for the transgressions of others and crushed for their iniquities, and in His scourging sinners were healed. As we behold (in our understanding) the glory of a crucified Savior on the cross, it was indeed a bloody and a gory situation. It was there we can see that the Father will not hold back His perfect wrath even when the One on whom the guilt has been placed is His perfect Son. In the crushing of the perfect Lamb of God we see the grace of God shining so brightly and so beautifully. This was all to the praise of the glory of His grace. This is another way of saying that sinners must see that the Gospel is a Gospel of grace alone. There is nothing they are or can do that would deserve or merit in the slightest the Son of God coming in human form and taking their sins upon Himself to suffer and die for them.

The kindest and most loving (God-) man that ever lived was taken by hateful and scornful hands and nailed to a cross of cursedness and wrath. He who was infinite in power in His Divine nature was seemingly in the hands of mortal man to nail to the cross, but instead it was His great love for the Father that held Him to the cross. It was His love for the Father and His glory that moved Him to suffer the wrath of the Father and save sinners to the glory of the Father. He who was perfectly holy took the horror and stain of the sins of many and suffered for them there so that the holiness and glory of grace would shine forth. He who was perfect love and lived in perfect love within the Trinity from all eternity past because cursed and the wrath of the Father that He had lived in perfect love with was poured out upon Him. Who in their right mind can say that this was anything but sheer and glorious grace! Who can behold the glory of a risen Savior and think that the whole event was anything but this perfect love and grace? The Son of God took human flesh to Himself in order that He could suffer for those who deserved the wrath themselves. That is nothing but sheer grace.

The Gospel of a crucified Savior knows nothing of men deserving or meriting anything but the wrath of God, but God out of His love for Himself (as triune) and His own glory sent the Son of God to die on that cursed cross in the place of sinners. How can anyone be anything but amazed at this display of Divine glory in grace? How can anyone attempt to diminish the glory of the cross by saying or thinking that s/he merited some good from God?

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Gospel of grace without works or grace alone or Christ alone is the only Gospel that can possibly come from the God of Scripture and of all creation. The Gospel is not for those who think they can work their way to heaven or that they can fulfill a condition in their own strength that God sets out for them to do before He saves them. The Gospel if for poor sinners with hearts that are broken from their own strength and from all help that self can do. The Gospel is all of grace from the moment of the Gospel coming to the sinner, hearing it, and the heart being opened to it. The Gospel is all of grace from the first conviction of sin to the breaking of the heart from self and pride. The Gospel is all of grace in the hearing of it and of the new heart that a sinner must have to believe.

While some may look at Matthew 5:3 as something other than the Gospel of grace alone, in fact it is quite a display of the Gospel in its own way. Who are the blessed? The blessed ones are those who are poor in spirit. These are the only ones that are blessed. But what does it mean to be poor in spirit? It means for a person to be utterly impoverished and having no ability to lift self from that utter impoverishment of spirit. Those that the Lord has kindly broken their hearts and now they see and understand that they are utterly impoverished with a complete inability to help themselves, these are the ones that prize grace above all things. To the degree that a person things that he has some spiritual ability in self or that he has some ability to lift himself up, to that degree a person is not ready for grace alone.

It is this broken person who is ready to hear of a Gospel where God saves by grace alone and He does so for His glory alone. It is this broken-hearted person who loves to hear of a Savior that saves from all sin and all wrath so that all the glory is His and His alone. It is the spiritually impoverished (in self) person that beholds the cross of Jesus Christ and knows that apart from the cross s/he deserves nothing but the infinite wrath of God. It is only the spiritually impoverished person that looks to the imputed righteousness of Christ and wants nothing to do with trying to earn his own righteousness. Oh how blessed this person truly is when God opens his or her eyes to see the truth about self and then the truth about Christ. Those who don’t see how impoverished they are can have the truth in the form of a creed or the truth of this in their brain, but they don’t trust Christ alone from the depths of their souls. They trust in themselves to trust in Christ or they trust something about themselves. These are unbroken men and when they enter the pulpit to preach such things, it sounds hollow and shallow because it is not what has happened to them but instead they just know about these things from head knowledge.

Those who are poor in spirit are those who don’t live the reign and rule of self, but instead they live by the reign and rule of the kingdom of heaven which is the reign of Christ and of grace. Those who are under the reign of self are in the hands of fools, but those who are poor in spirit have been broken from that reign and they are now under the reign of love and of perfect wisdom. That is a great blessing. While indeed man longs to rule self and make his own decisions from what he thinks is a free-will, which is nothing but the means by which the evil one rules him. Those things are the very hand of the devil in keeping the soul under his bondage. It is ironic in some ways that the devil preaches freedom to those he has enslaved while Christ teaches sinners that they must become His slaves in order to have true freedom. But only the truly poor in spirit are broken from self and pride and so are broken from the slavery and bondage of self and the evil one. Thus they are the only ones that are truly blessed.

The Gospel of grace alone stands firmly against all the pride of men, the righteousness of men, and of the things of self. Until men are delivered from those things, they are not ready to have grace alone save them and they are not ready to have Christ as King and as Lord. Until the life of self has been broken or until they have died to self, people are not ready to have Christ as their very life. The Gospel of grace alone will not have any pretenders to the throne and will not have any works to have a voice in order to boast, but instead the Gospel of grace alone clears the way in the human heart for grace to reign in, through, and by Christ alone. In this the poor in spirit have nothing to boast of regarding self and everything to boast of regarding Christ and His cross. What a glorious Gospel of grace alone that we have, but man has to learn by the work of the Spirit to quit trying to share in the work. It is truly grace alone.

Matthew 13:10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.

We are told in our day that Jesus spoke in parables to make things clear to people. They say that He spoke in these nice little stories in order to make things simple. But when Jesus was asked why He spoke in parables, it was in fulfillment of the passage in Isaiah 6 where Isaiah was sent out to harden hearts and hide the truth until the nation was basically destroyed. The disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables and His answer should set the record straight for all who have ears to hear. Jesus spoke in parables in order to hide things from some and yet give blessings to those who could see and hear.

This teaching lands like a bomb when it is taught and when it is understood. This is not the easy teaching of a feeling oriented modern “church”, but instead this is solid truth that hits hard and requires a broken heart to love and adore the grace given by God. The proud heart hates this, but the heart that has been broken from its pride and sin by the grace of God will learn to sit at the feet of the Master and worship regardless of what is taught for it has learned to adore the grace of God. The proud of heart rebel and want to be masters of themselves and of their own destinies which they want to be determined by morality and work. But God works by grace and grace alone. God gives grace to the humble while He fights against the proud to bring them down.

We can also see that the real issue is the state of the heart. Those who do not see and do not hear spiritual things are those with dull hearts. The dull heart (in the spiritual realm) is one that has closed eyes and ears. But those who are blessed are those with eyes that see and ears to hear. These are the ones that see and hear spiritual things rather than just the physical things. But once again we have to be careful here. People are not blessed because they hear, but they hear because they are blessed. Hearing the Gospel with spiritual ears is because of grace and not because of efforts to hear. Seeing the glory of Christ in the Gospel is because of grace and not because of efforts to see. The glory of the Gospel of grace is that it gives eyes to see and ears to hear as opposed to expecting man to do something where God will then give him grace.

Here is a clear distinction between the teaching of grace in the Bible and much of what is going on in Reformed circles and other circles today. The Bible knows nothing of a grace that man can work for or deserves to hear. The Bible knows nothing of a grace that can be given if man will meet a condition of some sort. The Bible only knows of a grace that saves because of who God is and cannot be merited or earned in any way. The heart of men are unable to turn to God and unable to hear and see the grace of the Gospel until God opens the eyes of man to be able to hear. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Gospel that is all of grace and man can do nothing to bring this grace to himself. There are no conditions to the Gospel that the man in his flesh can do, but instead all the conditions of the Gospel have been merited and fulfilled by Christ. It is true that sinners must repent, but they must be given a true repentance by grace alone or it is a work of the flesh. It is true that sinners must believe, but they must be given that faith by grace alone or it is a work of the flesh.

How freely ministers should preach a real Gospel to sinners on which nothing depends on them, but instead sinners must look to God to save them apart from all their works or merit or worth or anything else. Christ has left nothing for sinners to do in terms of merit or fleshly works, so why do ministers leave men a lot to do in terms of merit and fleshly works? Men must be broken from their self-sufficiency that Christ and His grace would shine forth. Even the receiving of Christ is by grace alone. Until sinners see that their hearts are wrong and they are unable to receive Christ apart from grace, they will not understand the Gospel. Until sinners see that they don’t deserve to hear the Gospel, they may not be ready to hear the Gospel of grace alone.

Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ 10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate.

In the great wisdom of God He gave Isaiah a sight of His inexpressible glory and a sight of Isaiah’s own vile heart and mouth before He sent Isaiah out on a great mission. We would think that God had a very “successful” ministry (in the way men think of success) set out for Isaiah because of how He manifested Himself to Isaiah and then Isaiah to himself. But God took great care to break this man from pride and humble him in the dust before Him. He took great care to show Isaiah his sin and then of the greatness of forgiveness of sin. He did this to prepare Isaiah for a truly successful ministry and that is one that is faithful to God Himself and His purposes.

After this great sight of the glory of God and his own sin, Isaiah was ready for a ministry of great success in the eyes of God and great failure in the eyes of man. How many converts did he have? That was not the purpose of his ministry. How many buildings did he build? That was not the purpose of his ministry. How many churches did he start? That was not the purpose of his ministry. The purpose of his ministry was to “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” What was success in the ministry of Isaiah? It was to preach judgment on the people. His preaching was to be a way of hardening the hearts of people as a means of judgment.

The thought of such a ministry was not pleasant to Isaiah, so he wanted to know “how long?” The Lord’s answer was this, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate.” Isaiah was not to know what it mean to have a positive impact on people, but instead he was to be faithful to God and to bring judgment on the people by preaching the truth to them. His preaching and his message was meant to render hearts insensitive to the things of God, to dim eyes, and make their ears dull. He was not to do this for a short time, but instead this ministry was given to him as his life ministry and it was to help in bringing the nation down.

The point, once again, is to set forth an aspect of the Gospel that we don’t often think about. The very hearing of the message is grace when people hear it as the Gospel, but the minister preaching it may indeed bring judgment upon people as well. Preaching the Gospel is not such a popular thing at times, but we must be aware that we must not preach a watered down form of the Gospel (which is no Gospel at all) as this is not what converts people but also does not bring judgment upon them as well. But the point is that people must understand that they have no right to the Gospel and they have no ability to see or hear the Gospel. The hearing of the Gospel with spiritual ears is grace. Seeing the glory of Christ in the Gospel is grace. Having a non-hardened heart is grace. The Gospel of the grace of God is grace through and through. We must not denigrate the grace of God at any point in this Gospel. We do not hear because we are wise or good, but we hear the Gospel because of the grace of God.

Revelation 2:5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place– unless you repent.

John 12:36 “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. 37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.”

The Gospel of grace alone cannot be grace alone from eternity past to eternity future including each and every point of salvation and sanctification in between unless each and every point of it be grace and grace alone. While it is not often preached on (in my hearing, never), nor written about, sinners don’t deserve to have anything less but their hearts hardened and their eyes blinded when they hear the Gospel. It is the purchased (by Christ) grace of God that some sinners have their eyes opened and their hearts softened to and by the Gospel. It seems like such a hard saying, but no one deserves to hear the Gospel at all. While evangelistic crusades and missions are driven by the idea that people are worthy to get the Gospel to, that is simply not true. No one is worthy to hear the Gospel. God is worthy to have His name proclaimed, which is the real reason for evangelism.

Again, this seems so hard to people in the modern day and possibly most any other day as well, but the Gospel is the good news of the glory of God. Sinners who hate God do not deserve to hear of the beauties and wonders of the glory of God and His grace in the Gospel. No only do they not deserve to hear it, they are not worthy of anything but to be judged by it. The true hearing and seeing the Gospel is by grace and grace alone. The arm of the Lord is revealed in great power when a sinner has his or her heart opened to behold the glory of God in the Gospel, but even the revelation of His great power is of grace as well. There can be no spiritual sight of Christ apart from the Spirit of Christ opening the eyes of the soul to see, but that is only by grace alone. Fallen human beings can never see Christ on account of anything they do or merit and so this is but by grace alone.

Why do sinners not believe when the true Gospel is preached? One reason is because their judgment is to be blinded to the Gospel and their hearts hardened to the Gospel. One of the great dangers of preaching a false gospel is that people will be deceived by it and think that they are converted when they still hate the true God, but we can also say that hearing the true Gospel can be dangerous because God uses it to harden hearts and blind eyes. Either way but this is a judgment upon them. The Gospel is not believed because a man makes a decision, but it is because the mighty arm of the Lord is bared and His grace works in that soul so that the man believes. Truly no one is worthy to hear the Gospel, but in His great mercy God brings the Gospel to His people. When the glorious Gospel is preached in truth, however, God hardens some to it. God judges people by preventing the Gospel from getting to them, by taking the Gospel from them, but also by blinding them by the truth of the Gospel.

This should humble all men into the dust before Him and it should show them their utter inability and helplessness before God in spiritual things. This should teach men that they need grace to understand the Gospel and that they need grace to see Christ and His glory. Men need grace to hear the calling of Christ and men need grace to soften their hearts. The Gospel of grace alone reaches to these parts of men as well. The Gospel of grace alone teaches men the utter dependence on grace in all aspects of the Gospel and how it comes to them at all times. Men deserve the hardening, but by grace alone God softens their hearts. Men deserve their eyes to be blinded, but by grace alone God opens their eyes and cures their blindness. How arrogant it is for men to think that they deserve the Gospel and have the power to see His glory and believe as they please and when they please. It shows that they have been blinded and hardened to grace alone. But for those who truly see, they should bow in worship and be amazed at the grace of God in Christ that reaches vile sinners as they are and gives them Christ Himself.