God Loves… Himself

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 difference between a faith given by God and a faith that man works up is enormous, even very enormous. The passage just above in Romans is so clear as to this point. It is God who will have mercy on whom He will have mercy, not men who will have mercy on themselves. It is God who will have compassion on whom He will have compassion, not men who will have compassion on themselves. It is in the hands of God to love or hate as He pleases. It does not depend on men to will or run, but instead it depends on God to have mercy. God has mercy on whom He pleases and He hardens as He pleases as well. The Gospel of grace alone comes to the sinner through faith. The only way we can harmonize Romans 9 with justification by faith alone is if God gives to those whom He pleases this faith.

Paul teaches us in Romans 11:6 that “if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” One thing that this text teaches us is that one work makes grace no longer to be grace. If grace is to be 100% pure grace in order to be grace at all, it cannot be diluted with even one work of man. This should teach us that faith is not a work of man but faith is the gift of God and the work of God (John 6:29). We must never, ever back off from this in the slightest. We must always hold to a free-grace and a sovereign grace and that means we must always hold to grace as 100% pure. The glory of this Gospel of grace alone is God Himself and His glory on display. It is to the degree that we denigrate the Gospel of grace alone that we attack the entire character of God.

It is true that the New Testament puts a lot of stress on faith, but why does it do that? Is it so that men can know that faith is in their own power and that they must work it up? Is faith nothing more than a decision or prayer of men who decide that they want to go to heaven? What a horrible denigration people have done to the whole biblical teaching on faith. Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, so man cannot be the author or finisher of his own faith. It is God who by His great mercy and grace who gives faith and as such man cannot give it to himself. Faith is the work of God in raising sinners from the dead and giving them spiritual life, so we know that faith cannot be the work of dead sinners themselves. It is God who upholds faith each moment as He indeed upholds our very physical breath at His mere pleasure as well.

In a very real sense the whole Gospel hangs on our views of faith. If faith is the work of man, then man is in charge of his own salvation. However, if faith is the work of God, then the whole of salvation is by grace and grace alone. If true faith can be the work of man, then we need to point men to themselves to believe as they please. Since true faith is the resurrection power of God in the souls of men, we must point men to Christ. We must preach Christ to them as the true object of faith and yet the author of faith. We must preach free-grace to men so that they will look to Christ for faith which only comes by grace. We must preach to true Christians that if they are lacking in faith, they will not find it in themselves but they should seek it from Christ. Faith, whether justifying faith or a faith that grows, can only come from Christ by free-grace. Let us look to the true author of faith for the grace of faith.

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

Will God justify sinners that He has not called? Not according to the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith. This is a startling teaching if one has not read it or thought about it before. This is a direct blow to the free-will crowd as well as various folks who think of themselves as Reformed and/or Calvinistic in our day. If God effectually calls all men, then all are justified by Him. However, if the Confession is correct then God only justifies those whom He calls. This is so hard for the self-dependent person to bear. This is impossible for Arminians to bear and so they will twist and twist away until they are satisfied with their own explanation.

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?”

Romans 9 (selected text just above) is so powerful to this point. It does not depend on the man who wills or runs, but it does depend upon God to show mercy. The mercy of God is not only in sending the Son to die for man, but for the Son to completely purchase a people and for the Spirit to work in them and for the Father to teach them inwardly. In all of this these dead sinners are drawn by grace alone and as such they are justified by grace alone. If sinners bring themselves to the Father, then they have something to do with their own justification. They came and others did not. They did a work in coming, they would say, while others did not. But the text is quite clear that it does not depend on the man who wills or runs, but instead it rests totally and completely on God to show mercy.

The Confession tells us that God freely justifies. The word “freely” does not just mean without cost, though indeed that is included, but that God justifies sinners without any cause within them. God declares sinners just based on Himself and His grace in Christ rather than on anything found in the sinner or anything that sinners can do. There is nothing that the sinner can do by running or willing that will move God to justify him or contribute in the slightest to his justification, but instead it is all of God and only of His grace in Christ. This is a point that must be driven home to the hearts of sinners, though it rarely is. God does not justify sinners because they pray a prayer or walk an aisle or do anything in an effort to be saved. He saves freely (without cause in the sinner) and anything the sinner tries to do to add to the salvation opposed to the Gospel of grace alone.

Sinners must seek the Lord in a way where they add nothing to the Gospel and in which the reality of it is that they are thoroughly sinful in all they do. Instead of the sinner trying to do things to move God to save him or her, sinners must read the Bible knowing that God does not save them because they read the Bible. Sinners should ask God to convict them of sin and to break their hard and proud hearts, but not because those things add anything to the work of Christ or because those things move God to save them. Only God can do those things as a way of effectually drawing them, but they add nothing to salvation. God has chosen to save sinners through the preaching of the Word and as such sinners should listen to biblical preaching. God only justifies those He has drawn to Himself, so sinners should seek Him without thinking for one moment that they are doing anything that moves them to God. They should seek Him knowing that He will have mercy on whom He is pleased to have mercy on and that they are contributing nothing to their salvation. God justifies freely means He justifies by free-grace and free and sovereign grace are at His mere pleasure to show as He pleases. Man can do nothing to obtain that as man is dead in sin and can do nothing to please God. The sovereign Lord alone can take a fallen man who is flesh and change his heart and make him into a spiritual man. Effectual calling alone can do that and those whom He has called He will justify by free-grace alone.

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

The doctrine of justification is at the heart of the Gospel of the glory of God in the face of Christ and when a professing church falls from the truth of the heart of this it stops being a true church at all. It is not a true local church when it does not preach the truth of the Gospel. It also appears that a person can preach the doctrine of it and still miss the heart of it which is centered upon God and His glory in Christ. A person that has not had his or her heart broken from self and pride will view justification from the view of self and pride and as such will miss the heart of the God-centeredness of true justification. For example, a person can profess the truth that God effectually calls sinners and not be effectually called. A person can agree that God accepts people as righteous based on the righteousness of Christ alone and still not be accepted as righteous by God. We must be very careful on these things.

Underlying this great doctrine of justification is the deadness and helplessness of man in sin and of God’s sovereign choice to show grace or not as He pleases. It is true that God saves those with faith, but we must deal with the question of why one has faith and another does not. If one reads the article above it has a great and grand truth that is at the very least implied in the great doctrine of justification though it is ignored in our day. It is the unity with Christ and that a person must be united to Christ Himself before any of the benefits of justification can be his or hers. Since it is Christ Himself that we must have in order to be justified, it throws quite a different light on the nature of justification and of the utter impotence of the so-called free-will. It is a far different thing for the will to make a choice for Christ than it is for Christ to be joined to the person and for the two to become one. It is Christ who saves and as such we must have Christ Himself and be in Him and also Christ in us. It is not enough to say that one simply believes the facts about Christ. One must actually be united to Him and be one with Him.

Those who are justified are effectually called by God. These sinners do not call themselves and do not come to Christ by themselves, but instead they are called by God. Jesus taught us very clearly in John 6 that we cannot come to Him but instead we must be drawn by Him. He also taught us that this happens when sinners are inwardly taught of the Father. What we must learn, then, is that God draws men and men do not come of themselves. This shows us the very glory of free grace instead of the wonder of the power of the choices of men. Men cannot come to Christ of themselves and so they will not come unless the Father draws them. Men cannot truly repent, though they can stop certain actions out of self-love, unless it is granted them and worked in them by God. Men must learn to seek the Lord to teach them in the inner man the truth and also the experience of themselves. It is not enough to know that I am depraved, God must teach the soul by the Spirit and His work of conviction that man has no ability or power in spiritual things.

The doctrine of justification by Christ alone and grace alone is built on the solid foundation that God draws sinners to Himself efficaciously which means that sinners do not come on their own power and ability. This is why the older writers and theologians taught sinners to seek the Lord that He would give them a new heart that they would be able to believe. Sinners need new and believing hearts worked in them by sovereign grace rather than just a mere choice. Sinners need the living Savior to actually and really save them. Sinners are saved in this efficacious call of God who applies Christ to them, but before sinners have Christ applied to them their wicked hearts that are full of self and pride must be convicted and broken. Only the humble can receive grace and as such God just teach sinners their great need of grace and of their need to bow before God with nothing in them and simply looking to Him alone who can do this mighty work in them. The doctrines of free-grace and a free-justification do not stand alone and are not intellectual doctrines alone, but God must teach these things in the hearts of men.

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

The Reformation was a time of great turmoil and change. The Reformers went back to Scripture as the standard though they used the Church Fathers extensively. What each person must come to grips with is what the Gospel is and to whom do we look for guidelines on the Gospel. We must also wrestle with what it means to believe the Gospel and to truly be saved. We must also know that there is a huge difference between believing that justification by grace alone through faith alone is true and actually being justified by grace alone. Unbelievers can know the facts of the Gospel but they cannot see the glory and beauty of the Gospel and are not justified by God apart from His grace. It is not believing that the biblical truth of justification is true that one is saved, but one must actually be declared just by God in order to be saved.

In the modern day there is no doubt that there is a widespread departure from the doctrines set out during the time of the Reformation. But of course that is not a huge problem unless the magisterial Reformers were wrong about what Scripture taught on this subject. However, if they were right, then any person and any professing church that does not teach that is teaching a false gospel. If the Church or churches stand or fall on this doctrine, then many churches have fallen. Just as bad in one sense, though perhaps more deceitful, are those professing churches that hold to this in creed and yet never really talk about it or preach on it. This great doctrine may be mentioned, but it is never taught or emphasized from the pulpit.

If justification is at the very heart of the Gospel, then the Gospel cannot be taught apart from teaching on justification. One can also think of justification as being the teaching where the great doctrines are collected and emphasized, but the reality of the matter is that Christ is the heart of the Gospel and Christ is the heart of justification and all Christian teachings. This is to say that each church stands or falls not only on if it teaches justification, but how it teaches it. One can teach justification in such a way where it is all doctrine full of true propositions, but if Christ is left out then it is not taught properly and biblically.

The Church stands or falls upon this article. It is quite shocking that something that the Church stands or falls upon is not taught clearly and more often. The only thing that one can conclude is that the professing Church no longer really believes that it stands or falls upon the great and glorious doctrine of justification. People seem to be more concerned with morality and propriety than with the great and glorious Savior and how He saves sinners. People seem to think that the “Church calendar” is so important and yet the Gospel is of such little importance. People seem to think that the Sacraments are so important and that church order is so important and the Gospel is left begging to be taught.

When the professing Church leaves or simply ignores justification it ignores the Savior and Lord of the Church. When this great doctrine is not thought important enough to focus on and spend time on, the professing Church certainly appears not to be standing any longer. One can be quite conservative and hold to a good creed, but that is not the same thing as preaching the resurrected and living Jesus who is at this moment reigning and ruling and who saves sinners through the Gospel. People are not saved in any other way than by Jesus Christ Himself saving them in accordance with the Gospel. Those in the churches are only brought up and nourished in the faith by this Gospel.

The Gospel is all about the glory of God in the face of Christ and it nourishes and strengthens doubting souls who are assailed daily by false teaching and the deceptions of sin, the world, their own hearts, and the devil. Apart from preaching this great Gospel of grace alone, how will sinners live by grace to the glory of God? God has revealed Himself in Christ and at the cross of Christ, yet this will not truly be taught unless the doctrine of justification captures our hearts. When God breaks the hearts of sinners from their pride, this is the doctrine that they must have. When God sends true revival among His people, this doctrine is set forth and taught. Without question we are not in a time of revival in this land today but instead we are in the midst of a great famine.