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Musings 105

March 27, 2016

Let us know for a certainty that free justification is the very head, heart, and soul of all Christian religion, and true worship of God; without the true and joyful knowledge thereof, our religion is headless, our profession and worship heartless, and our very zealous conversation is a mere corruption of the Gospel, and rottenness, like a body without a soul that stinketh before God. Briefly in a word, as the perfect righteousness of Christ is only worthy to be acknowledged for the wedding garment; because all the righteousness of our imperfect sanctification is {as the Prophet saith} as filthy, menstrous, stained rags – Isaiah 64:6; so true faith of free justification, being the having on of this wedding-garment, because it alone doth truly abolish all the filthy nakedness of our sins out of God’s sight, and it alone doth make us perfectly holy, and sufficiently righteous in the sight of God freely, without works. Therefore it alone doth make us fit brides, and is only meet to marry us to so glorious a Bridegroom, as is the King of glory – Christ Jesus. John Eaton {Honeycombe of Free Justification by Christ Alone – 1642, Taken from Supralapsarian.com}

The Gospel is not something that just/only has to do with becoming a Christian; it has everything to do with the whole of being a Christian. Apart from the free justification of sinners in Christ, there is no true worship of God and there is no true godliness. The Gospel is vital to all areas of life and is indeed the good news of the glory of God to lost sinners, but it is also the good news of the glory of God to saved sinners. Those who become Christians are in great need of the good news of the glory of God at all times. If God has become our chief love, then we should want to hear the good news of His glory at all times.

The truth of the matter, though this is perhaps a bit of an overstatement, is that believers need the Gospel as bad if not worse than unbelievers. The point in this context is that believers need to know more and more of the Gospel and they need to know depths of the Gospel that unbelievers cannot understand and cannot know. In the modern day it seems as if we want to give people some simple message and then if they say a prayer or make a profession of faith then we want them to hear mostly of works. It seems as if the Gospel is viewed only in terms of saving sinners while maturing in the faith has to do with works and duty. This is a horrible error and glorifies works rather than the free-grace of God in saving sinners and then manifesting His life in them by the life of Christ.

Saved sinners never get beyond the infinite depths of Christ and His Gospel. Saved sinners need to hear more and more of their very life and that life is Christ. Saved sinners need to hear more and more of how it is that Christ works His live in them, and that is by free-grace alone. Saved sinners do not become more holy by doing more works, but by dying to self, growing deeper and deeper into knowledge of their own helplessness and sinfulness, and then having more and more of Christ and His free-grace.

What we must understand is that sinners need the Gospel. All men are sinners and saved people are sinners as well. As God works in His people and they have the light of Christ and the light of the Gospel in them, they will begin to see more and more of their sin. As Luther put it, a person that repents is a repenter and will always be repenting. That is quite true. God will not leave His chosen people in their sin undisturbed and bound by the misery of sin, but instead He loves them and will break the bondage of their sin by shining His light upon it and showing them the hatefulness and horror of it. When He does that, however, He binds their wounds with the Balm of Gilead and that is Christ. It is Christ and Christ crucified that saved sinners must hear more and more about as they grow in a deeper knowledge of their sin and of their own inability. Corresponding to that is their need to grow deeper and deeper in their knowledge of Christ and His perfect sufficiency for them and their sin.

It is a terribly shallow view of the Gospel that does not long for men to grow deeper and deeper in their views of Christ and His Gospel of free-grace. Our land languishes because churches have gotten into programs and external morality rather then deeper views of Christ and His Gospel. The churches languish because a watered-down gospel which is no Gospel is taught to unbelievers and then believers are taught systems based on works or perhaps intellectual knowledge. The Gospel is not that men must come to know about Christ, but they must come to know Christ Himself. The Gospel is the zenith of the glory of God in Christ and that is what men must come to taste and delight their souls in. We MUST have the Gospel preached in the churches in greater and then even greater depth. If not, some will die in their sins and others will be blown around by winds of error and they will die as babes.

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Meditations on God 3

March 26, 2016

Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? 19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. 20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24 Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. 25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

The world thinks of itself with high thoughts and a sense of grandeur. How wonderful it is, or so it is thought, to be world champion or to set a world record. How wonderful the world thinks it is to be best in the world or one of the richest in the world. However, this passage of Scripture shreds and obliterates all of that. This passage gives the mind of God on the value of the world in and of itself and how glorious He is in contrast with that. If all the nations together are as nothing before Him, then what is a world record by an individual or a team of individuals? If all the nations are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless, then what value can all those awards and distinctions have that people seek?

The world is all the things such as attitudes and intents and actions that are focused on self and pride rather than on the glory of God. The world can be very religious, yet it can be opposed to the true and living God. The living God is utterly and absolutely glorious in all that He is and when compared to the entire universe and the entire world, all of those things together are nothing in and of themselves. God created the world (physical things) as a place to manifest His glory and that is the only true use of the world (as in physical things). When people seek worldly things, they are seeking things and not the Creator who created all for His glory.

The living God is simply beyond compare in all ways and at all times. He sits in the heavens serene and untouchable. He sits in the heavens completely self-sufficient within Himself and needs nothing or no one. If one could offer this world and all it has to God, it would be as nothing. After all, He could create as many worlds as He wanted and/or needed. He is the One who upholds this world as He pleases and receives nothing from the physical world or the world as a fleshly and focused on the senses.

There are things in this world (political positions and money and…) that appear to give people power, but the whole world and all it is and has is only in appearance. The whole world is less than nothing and meaningless to Him. How great and glorious this God is. When the world has such a flash and desirable appearance, and yet it will all pass away, how desirable is God who will never pass away? How desirable should God be to our souls when the whole world is nothing and meaningless before Him? What a wicked thing it is to seek the world and not seek God. What a wicked thing it is to use His creation for self and not for His glory. What a wicked thing it is to be enamored with the world and not with its Creator.

The world makes physical idols, but those are utterly ridiculous as there is nothing like God who is spiritual that we can make something of His likeness in a stone or piece of wood. Yet the churches and the world continue to make idols of things and even religion. God cannot be pictured in any way and yet we still try to do so with the idols of our minds and hearts. Wrong theology is really a wrong picturing of God and is idolatry. We must seek the Lord to grant us a true sight of Him and the world. Only God is worthy of worship and adoration. Only God is worthy of love and high esteem.

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Free Grace 31

March 25, 2016

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648}

So that mercy is love to those who are miserable. Grace is love in him that is unobliged. Unobliged, I say, either by necessity, merit, or motive. Grace then, in God, is nothing but free love. 1. Free in respect of constraint; when there is no necessity he should fix his love upon this object at all, or upon this rather than another, this is spontaneum. 2. Free in respect of merit; when there is nothing in the object that deserves love, either absolutely or comparatively, this is gratuitum. 3. Free in respect of motive; when there is nothing in the object to move this affection to pitch upon it at all, or upon it rather than another, this is liberum, though it expresses it not fully. [David Clarkson, A Discourse of Free Grace]

Within these two statements is the very heart of who God is and as such the very heart of the Gospel of grace alone. Eternal life is to know God (John 17:3) and as such the Gospel is the good news of the glory of God. The Gospel is all about Jesus Christ and how He is the shining forth of the glory of God and only in Him and through Him can we know God. The Gospel is all about the free-grace of God which Christ has purchased for all of His people. The Gospel teaches us that God saves sinners by Christ alone and it is for His sake that sinners are saved. This glorious Gospel is from eternity free-grace and will be free-grace for all eternity. At no point can our works suffice even the smallest to save us or keep us saved. It is free-grace from eternity past to eternity future and everything in between.

Men are taught in our day to repent and believe in order to be saved, but that is not a Gospel of free-grace. What we should be teaching men is to seek the Lord who has to grant repentance and give them new hearts that are hearts of faith. Repentance and faith are not before sinners receive saving grace, but saving grace gives sinners true repentance and true faith. Repentance and faith are not qualifications in order to be saved, but those things are what sinners who have grace do. This does not deny the necessity of repentance and faith, but it removes them from being works of the flesh and puts them right where they belong as coming from the free-grace of God. Let us behold the glory of God in the face of Christ and the Gospel of the glory of His grace in Christ.

In both of the statements above (one by Simpson and one by Clarkson) one can see the point if they will replace the word “grace” with the word “Christ.” This is to say that all free-grace is in Christ and it is also saying that Christ Himself is grace to us. This is also saying that the Gospel is freely given to us by Christ who had no obligation on His part to sinners to save them. He freely came to take the wrath of the Father upon Himself and He freely satisfied the wrath of the Father. There was nothing in sinners themselves that would move Christ to do this, but this was from eternity and in the bosom of the Godhead this was planned in order to glorify God.

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the Christ of God. The light and beams of Christ do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covers our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by Christ, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of Christ in himself, in which he swallows them up.

Let us behold the glory of God and His free-grace in Christ. Let us never think that it is our works or our humility or our repentance or faith that moves God to save us. Oh no, instead of that it is God who works to break our proud hearts and our selfish hearts in order to humble us at His hand. It is God who brings us low and delivers us from pride that He may give us humility in Christ. The hand of God may bring pain and affliction as He brings us low, but until we don’t trust in self for faith and repentance we will not look to Christ for faith and repentance. If we do not look to Christ for them, we are looking to self for them. Behold the glory of free-grace in Christ!

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Free Grace 30

March 24, 2016

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648}

So that mercy is love to those who are miserable. Grace is love in him that is unobliged. Unobliged, I say, either by necessity, merit, or motive. Grace then, in God, is nothing but free love. 1. Free in respect of constraint; when there is no necessity he should fix his love upon this object at all, or upon this rather than another, this is spontaneum. 2. Free in respect of merit; when there is nothing in the object that deserves love, either absolutely or comparatively, this is gratuitum. 3. Free in respect of motive; when there is nothing in the object to move this affection to pitch upon it at all, or upon it rather than another, this is liberum, though it expresses it not fully. [David Clarkson, A Discourse of Free Grace]

Sin makes people miserable and they suffer for it in hell with the fullness of misery. If we could only see the misery of sin we would flee from it rather than drink iniquity like water. Mankind are born in that misery and they fill themselves full until the day of God’s choice when He removes them from this world. The only way to escape eternal misery is from God who alone understands that misery and who alone can remove men from misery. When it is said that God alone can remove men from misery, the idea that man cannot remove himself from that misery is purposefully included. Man is utterly helpless in sin and there is nothing he can do to remove himself from sin. Man cannot move God to save him and man can do nothing to extricate himself even in the slightest way from sin.

God can only be moved by Himself and with a love for Himself and within Himself. This points us to the greatness and glory of free-grace. While the common thought of grace is that man is just unworthy of it, though man has great worth, the common thought of grace is that there is something in man that moves God or that man can do something that moves God. If so, then grace is not free. But grace is free. There is nothing in or about man that can constrain God to save man. What would constrain God to fix His love upon man when man is a despicable creature worthy of nothing but divine wrath? What would constrain God to fix His love upon man when man is a hateful creature who hates God and is at enmity with Him? Nothing, absolutely nothing can constrain God to set His love on sinful man. Only God could and can freely, of Himself, and for His own glory set His love in sinful men. Nothing can overpower God and move Him to save men. Nothing can be greater than God’s love for Himself and His own glory. Therefore, nothing can constrain God to set His love on men. Grace is free or it is not grace at all.

Grace is always free in respect of merit. While we may agree with this theologically, it is impossible for us to divest ourselves of merit in our hearts. It is God alone who can save people who have no merit and yet in the secret places of their hearts rely on some merit in some way. Grace is either free of merit or no one would ever be saved. Romans 3:1-19 sets out how we have no righteousness and no merit before God, but instead we are full of demerit. There is nothing in us that can in the slightest way merit the love of God and as such God must set His love on sinners by free-grace alone. There is nothing in us that we have by nature that can possibly obtain merit and there is nothing we can do to obtain merit. We have no hope and no possible way of meriting in the slightest way the love of God. Not only, then, can anything possibly constrain God to set His love on men, but there is no way we can do anything but have demerit rather than merit. Grace is free of constraint and merit or it is not grace at all.

Grace must also be free of motives as found in man or it is not grace at all. God’s motive for setting His love on man cannot be because He has motives for man that is moved by men, but God’s motives must be found within Himself in order for His love to be by free-grace. For grace to be grace it must be free of all things within man (whether good or evil, though there is no good to be found in fallen sinners) and all the motives of God toward man to be found in God Himself. God is free to show grace to whom He pleases or it is not free-grace. God is free not to show grace to whom He is pleased not to show grace or grace is not free. We must fight for the Gospel of grace alone and the only kind of grace is free-grace or a true sovereign grace. There is utterly nothing that man can do to move God to show mercy to him. What we must see is that God saves sinners to the glory of His grace and as such it is free from all constraint, merit, or motives as found in man. God cannot be constrained by anyone, man cannot obtain merit before God, and God is moved by Himself and His love for His own glory rather than anything found in man. Grace is utterly free of all causation as found in man and is moved by God alone.

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Free Grace 29

March 23, 2016

Nothing in man doth precede or prevent the grace of God. The light and beams of grace do dispel the clouds of our sins. Not for our sakes, but for his Name’s sake he covereth our sins. It is God’s prerogative to free us from sin by grace, and to remove them far from us. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” {Ps.103:12} He only can remove sin against whom it is committed. He only can cast sin into the depths of the sea, who hath an ocean of grace in himself, in which he swalloweth them up. John Simpson {Perfection of Justification, 1648}

So that mercy is love to those who are miserable. Grace is love in him that is unobliged. Unobliged, I say, either by necessity, merit, or motive. Grace then, in God, is nothing but free love. 1. Free in respect of constraint; when there is no necessity he should fix his love upon this object at all, or upon this rather than another, this is spontaneum. 2. Free in respect of merit; when there is nothing in the object that deserves love, either absolutely or comparatively, this is gratuitum. 3. Free in respect of motive; when there is nothing in the object to move this affection to pitch upon it at all, or upon it rather than another, this is liberum, though it expresses it not fully. [David Clarkson, A Discourse of Free Grace]

The thought of free-grace should never be far from the lover of God. After all, the fact that we truly love the true God is a sign of the work of free-grace in the soul. One can talk about the Greatest Commandments, but there is no keeping them apart from the grace of God working those things in the soul by free-grace. One can talk about the Ten Commandments, but again one cannot keep those in truth and love apart from the grace of God in the soul. The Israelites had the law written on stone and as a nation they were bound to keep the externals of the law, but in the New Covenant God writes the law on the hearts of His people. This is an expression, as far as I can see, of His being in the hearts of His people by the life of Christ and the Spirit of Christ. Keeping the commands of God from the heart is really the grace of God in the soul sharing His life with His people.

Preachers can pound on duty as much as they please, but until they are showing people their inability to keep any command of God and the utter and absolute necessity of grace in the soul to keep those commandments; they have not even started to truly preach Christ and Him crucified. The law was a tutor to lead people to Christ, but let us always know that Christ is the life of His people and not just One who satisfied the demands of the law. This is not a post on the law, but is an effort to set out free-grace in all things. The only holiness that a person has is by free-grace and not the keeping of duties. We are not blessed because we kept the law, but we keep the law from the heart of love because we are blessed with free-grace. Holiness does not come because we strive hard and keep the external laws, but it comes because God shares His holiness with us in Christ by free-grace.

The statements above should show us the true nature (at least some of it) of free-grace. There is utterly and absolutely nothing in man that can possibly precede or prevent the grace of God. The true and living God will show mercy to whom He will show mercy and He will be gracious to whom He will be gracious. Grace is not grace unless it is free of causation and is sovereign, which is to say that God will show grace as He is pleased to show grace. It may be the case that it is impossible to stress this point to people who need to hear it over and over. Our fallen minds and hearts keep leaning to legalism to some degree and we are always thinking we can please God in some way by something we do. It is only Christ who pleases God and we only have Christ and share in the life of Christ by free-grace. If we ever think that we can do one thing that pleases God in our own strength, we are operating contrary to the Gospel of free-grace and the Christ of free-grace who is the life of His people.

In our day it seems that preachers (Reformed in name or not) are heaping duties on sinners as if they had the strength to do them. Christ must be preached and His free-grace must be preached in the midst of all other instructions, commands, duties or any other word that people use. Yes, souls must be humbled and broken, but it is grace that does the work of humbling. If a man can work humility in his own strength, then the humility he has worked up is the strength of his flesh. If a man can work humility as he pleases, then we can know that grace is by works since God gives grace to the humble. It is not just any humility that will please God, but it is only the humility of Christ that pleases God and it is His humility that He works in and shares with His people. People should seek the Lord and pray for Him to break their hearts and grant them humility, but they do not deserve humility and it will only come at His sovereign pleasure. There is nothing in man that could possibly move God to show us His love, but it comes to us by free-grace and free-grace alone. We seek these things for His name’s sake or we are not seeking it in truth at all.

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Meditations on God 2

March 22, 2016

Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? 19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. 20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24 Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. 25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

The human soul was made for God as all things have been made for God. All things were made for God and for the purpose of manifesting His glory and that primarily to Himself. God can have no greater Being than Himself as a motive to create things for. God can have no greater love than Himself or He would be an idolater. The passage above shows the thorough God-centeredness of all things as opposed to moderns who seem to think that man is the center of all things and that even God is centered upon man. That type of thinking is really fallen thinking which is to say that it is the type of thinking that a person who thinks of self as a god and wants God to be focused on him or her. God is worthy, not man. God must create for His own glory or He would be serving inferior purposes and not His own glory and that would make Him unholy.

Once again we must think deeply through the passage above. What are all the nations in His presence? They are less than nothing and meaningless. These truths of God point to the greatness of God and the absolute reality of the nothingness and meaninglessness of man in the ultimate sense. It is nothing but the pride of man and the deceptions that come through that proud self that makes men think of self as the focus and center of all things. Oh how wicked man is to take the absolute reality of God as the center of all things and pretend that man is the measure of all things and even of God.

To whom will men liken the true God? They liken God to themselves. As was said many years ago, “God created man in His own image and man has returned the favor. That is true. Fallen and sinful man is full of self and pride and tries to twist the truth of God and make God like man. Arrogant man tries to think of himself as the standard of morality and in doing so he will read parts of the Bible or look at all the suffering on the planet and think that God does not exist since no one could be all-powerful and all-good. Indeed that is terrible reasoning, but it is the reasoning of proud hearts.

The Lord Jesus Christ does indeed save sinners, but only to the glory of God. The Lord Jesus Christ does indeed save sinners to the glory of God, but part of the way He does that is to humble sinners in the dust so that they see that they are less than nothing and meaningless. Christ, the Great Prophet, teaches His people about who they are so that they will love His free-grace and nothing or their own worth and works. Man must behold the living God in His greatness and His centrality for all things or man will move himself to the center. Oh behold His glory and His beauty and majesty and know that man can receive nothing good but by the free-grace of God. There is no Gospel apart from the free-grace of God and as such it is nothing but a so-called gospel that has any works.

When all the nations are nothing before Him and less than nothing and meaningless, what could move God to save sinners? It could only be His own glory and it can only be the glory of His free-grace that saves sinners. Oh how men should seek the Lord to humble their proud hearts and the self-centeredness of their fallen hearts. Oh how men should seek the Lord to teach them in their inward man the glory and beauty of free-grace. As long as men search for and strive for some worth or works that they can earn or do, they will now bow with broken hearts and behold the glory of free-grace that is given them solely and only in the name of Christ.

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Justification by Christ 13

March 22, 2016

1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 11

1._____ Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.

Justification by faith alone is the article upon which the Church stands or falls. Martin Luther

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!15 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. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”

The sovereign pleasure of God is displayed in the certain redemption of His elect from their fallen estate to spiritual and eternal life. In this great work, He has done whatsoever He has pleased. It is true, that the unalterable decree of election rendered redemption unavoidable; notwithstanding, it is impossible that it could ever become undesirable, in the eyes of the God of everlasting love. It pleased Him to choose them, therefore it must be pleasing to Him to redeem and possess them. They were chosen to obtain salvation and eternal glory through redemption; and the Son of God was chosen to redeem them from all iniquity to God. Redemption is the great and main channel, though which the river of boundless grace flows out from the eternal throne of the triune God, to an elect world. All spiritual blessings were ordained to reach the sinner, though Calvary’s free and complete redemption. This blessed work of Emmanuel is governed by election; on which, as upon its proper basis, it securely rests. And in this solemn and wondrous transaction of Jesus Christ, good pleasure is for ever displayed. It pleased the Father to appoint the Son, who is the Lord of glory, to ransom His chosen family from deserved death, to endless and given life. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, on whom, by imputation, He had laid the sins of His elect, in the ancient covenant of His grace. Thus, that a peculiar people should be redeemed, arose from their having chosen from everlasting in Christ, as their heavenly Head. On His Headship by grace, is founded His suretyship in mercy: He, being their Head, became also their Savior. He covenanted as their representative, and therefore died in their stead. He accepted the imputation of their crimes; and by thus being made sin, He became the lawful victim of punitive justice, and the all-sufficient Savior of His lost people. In Him the Father is well-pleased; and by Him, He has done whatsoever His has pleased. (John Stevens)

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Meditations on God 1

March 20, 2016

Isaiah 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. 18 To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? 19 As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. 20 He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. 21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. 24 Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. 25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.

God has been virtually forgotten in the American version of Christianity. We have programs and we have self-helps and we have entertainment, but where is God? For some reason He is the One that is out of sight though we think we are serving Him by doing good and by being religious. Why do people think that they are doing God a favor by doing good and by being religious? Why do they think that they are going to enter heaven based on those things? Why do preachers think that they will enter heaven based on the fact that they preached when in fact they preached in order to get money or for the honor of men?

The versions of Christianity that I hear are something quite different than Holy Scripture. The things I hear about God in the modern day are quite different from what I read about God in the Scriptures. Isaiah is speaking to religious people and it is almost with amazement that he asks them if they did not know and if they have not heard about the true God. The God that Isaiah sets forth in the passage above is not what we hear about in the modern day.

Where is the living God today? Where is He in terms of what He is supposed to be doing? If we go by what we hear, then He is up in heaven and is anxiously hoping that some people will think of Him or do Him the favor of telling others about Him or perhaps He is just hoping that those who have chosen Him will be good little boys and girls. Hogwash, to put it as nicely as I can, the true God is the absolute sovereign of the universe. The true God is so great that He cannot be served. The true God has no need at all from anyone or anything, but instead He exists in and of Himself with absolutely no need at all. Whatever He needs of desires He is sufficient within Himself.

It is not good for the self-esteem to read the passage above about how we are like grasshoppers, but that is more of an understatement than an overstating of the case. God is so great that we are even said to be nothing. All the nations are nothing before Him and He regards them as nothing and meaningless. This is not the God that is spoken of from the modern pulpit. Where can one go to hear the infinite glories of God declared and set forth? Where can we go to hear of how our holiness and morality are not of benefit to God, but that these things are blessings that God grants us in Christ and works in us by His grace.

Oh how can this be communicated to sinners who think that God is pleased with them because they do good? How is it to be communicated to sinners that we are of no benefit to God and that any action that is good that comes from us had to come from Him first? Where can we hear that salvation is by the choice of God and not the choice of man? Where can we hear that our prayers do not move God unless we have sought the Lord and He has worked in our hearts what we are to seek from Him?

The living God cannot be served by human hands. The living God does not need people to do things for Him. The living God cannot have anything done for Him. We are at His mercy and we are in His sovereign hands. He does not need out acts of goodness, but we need Him if we are to an act of goodness. He does not need our religion (nor want it), but instead it is only by His grace that we have any love for Him which is an absolute need if we are to have any true worship. God reigns, man does not and is utterly dependent upon the sovereign and true God.

 

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Justification by Christ 12

March 16, 2016

1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 11

1._____ Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.

Justification by faith alone is the article upon which the Church stands or falls. Martin Luther

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!15 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. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”

With the ideas of God-centeredness and of the source of faith in mind, we can think of what it means to pardon sin. Either God pardons men for sin because of Himself and the work of Christ or He pardons men for sin because men come up with faith. We need to set things out like this so we can see them in the light that they are really in. There is no real middle ground between the two, it is simply one or the other. It is true that men will have faith if God gives them faith, but that is far different than telling men to look to themselves to believe in order to be justified. Would we urge Esau to just believe that God loved him and wanted him to believe and be saved? Again, once it is put in that type of light we may see some issues rising to the top.

What we must see is that urging men to faith is tantamount to urging them to do something so that God will save them. We must urge men to look to Christ to give them faith as that is the only place or location where true faith will come from. This is not just an option, it is vital. Men will look to themselves for faith if they are not looking to Christ. If they are looking to themselves, then they are not looking to be justified by free-grace alone. If they are looking to themselves for faith, they can only come up with a false faith as self can never come up with true faith. It is God who effectually calls men, not themselves. It is God who draws men to Himself, not men themselves. It is God who regenerates men at His mere pleasure, not men themselves. It is God who alone can be the source of true faith, not men themselves.

The 1689 is so clear in this matter as it sets out the teaching of Scripture, though it seems as if so many who say they believe the 1689 have either not read this part or have forgotten it. It says clearly, of faith, “which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 is also as clear as Romans 9 on this: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” True faith cannot come from the soul dead in sins and trespasses and can only come from God as a gift. Faith is the work of God and it is the gift of God. Since God cannot be moved by men or anything external to Himself, God cannot be moved to give faith to men and He cannot be moved by a faith (not true faith) that a man can come up with. Yes, this is going over the same ground over and over. However, in our day it seems as if this basic truth has been forgotten.

We note that God saves sinners and justifies them on the basis of Christ alone. That leaves no room for one work that can move God to justify sinners. Any work that man can come up with to move God would mean that justification is not on the basis of Christ alone. Men are saved on the basis of Christ alone and that means man contributes nothing to his justification and that includes faith. Christ has purchased all spiritual blessings for men and it is in Christ that we have spiritual blessings. Men can only have faith if it comes from God and God only gives spiritual blessings based on Christ and in Christ. This is the glory of free-grace. Man is in bondage and cannot change his own heart to have a true faith which is a spiritual faith. God must give it to man by free-grace and that gives men assurance and comfort based on God and not men.

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Justification by Christ 11

March 15, 2016

1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Chapter 11

1._____ Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God.

Justification by faith alone is the article upon which the Church stands or falls. Martin Luther

Romans 9:13 Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” 14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!15 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. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”

In just wanting to get back to the God-centeredness of the Bible and the focus on God, we must know that God justifies sinners because of Himself and His own glory. Fallen men want a God that is focused on them rather than His own glory, but that is not how the thrice holy God is. He loves Himself as triune and the Gospel flows out of that perfect love for Himself and His love for His own glory. Jesus Christ loved the Father and in accordance with the Great Commandment He loved the Father with all of His heart, mind, soul, and strength. It is out of love for His Father that He gave Himself for sinners. This is an important concept and in fact is a glorious teaching.

John 14:31 but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. Get up, let us go from here.

The Lord Jesus Christ was headed to the Christ and His words were captured in Scripture and we can read them in John. He wanted the world to know that He loved the Father and so He did exactly what He was commanded to do. From eternity past the cross was planned and the Lord Jesus willingly and lovingly headed to the cross out of love for His Father. It is this that sinners can rest in. It is this that can give sinners confidence before the living God. Jesus Christ loved the Father perfectly and perfectly carried out the desires and plans of the Father.

The greatest hope that an Arminian can have, whether in name or a practical Arminian though a professing Calvinist, is in my choice. If it was my choice to trust in Christ, then my deepest trust is in myself and my choice. However, Romans 9 points us away from ourselves and points us to God and His electing grace. We are pointed to the mercy, compassion, and the love of God rather than our weak choice. Oh how utterly glorious this is if we could only get beyond thinking of self all the time.

Look at the 1689 with God-centered lenses. God, as thrice holy and perfect in every way, could never save sinners based on their own sinful and weak choices. God effectually calls and it is God who effectually justifies as well. There is simply no room for my choice to make a difference in the issue. This effectual justification means that there is not one thing lacking in it, but all is given by free-grace and all is accomplished by Christ. This cannot be emphasized too much. A free justification means that this justification is free of causation in the human being and that it is all of the initiative and work of God. This leaves no room for the sinner to work up faith on his or her own even if s/he could work it up which no one can. What man cannot do God does easily and perfectly. What man cannot do God accomplishes for His own glory. Man is justified completely, utterly, and totally by Christ alone. Man is justified, completely, utterly, and totally by grace alone and to the glory of God alone. With that in mind, true faith can only come from the work of God in Christ and given by grace. Nothing is left to do in the perfect and free justification that God works.

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