God Loves… Himself

Our Lord shone forth in his personal glory once, and but once, in his incarnate state on the mount of transfiguration. John and Peter, who saw him in his glory, thus speak of it. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. John, I:14. We were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 2 Peter, I:16,17. But let us proceed to the other subjects you proposed, or our time will be up ere we are aware of it.
The next glory that belongs to our Lord, which we are to speak of is, 2dly. The Glory of his Headship, including therein his relative glory. He is God-Man, the, Lord, the head, the proprietor of every creature,visible and invisible. All things were created by him and for him: he is, therefore, Lord of all. He is the beginning of the creation of God: the first-born of every creature. All were made by him: all were made for him. He is the center of all; he is the glory of all; and a glory ariseth out of all, to shew forth the majesty and greatness of him in a manifestative way, who is Lord of all the glory of all the foundation of all who upholds all and filleth all in all. He, as the head of his elect bride, hath a relative glory, arising from his being to her the head of grace and glory. He is her Lord and husband: she is his bride and social companion; as such, she is his glory.
Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. Prov.,8:30,31, May the Lord the Spirit open these words to your mind, and your mind to apprehend what is here expressed and contained, you will then be admitted into the view and delights of Christ in his church, who is to be with him in heaven for ever, and be made perfectly like him, by seeing him as he is.
In the state of grace, the Holy Ghost operates on your spiritual faculties un-discernable by you. He lets in thoughts, and creates apprehensions of Christ in your mind, as fill it with holy wonder and admiration at the revelation of Christ, and the Father’s love in him, so as there is nothing but this uppermost in your soul. This is the work of God. When you are most under it, you act nothing; but it so influences you, and leaves such divine effects on your mind, as draw out afterwards your whole soul into spiritual acts and exercise. You cannot be more blessed, than to be entirely under the teachings of the Lord the Spirit; and at such times you are entirely passive.
He is the Mediator of union, of communion, of reconciliation. He wears the glory of putting away sin; of bringing in everlasting righteousness; of making peace by the blood of his cross; of reconciling all things to himself, whether they be things on earth, or things in heaven; of subduing Satan; of spoiling principalities and powers; of abolishing death; Of rising from the dead; of saving his people in himself, with an everlasting salvation: for all which he is crowned with glory everlasting. His mediatorial glories are his coronation in heaven; his session at the right hand of the Majesty on High his offices of prophet, priest, and king, which he is fully invested in, and He exercises them as now exalted to be a Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and the remission of sins. There is a wonderful variety in all these glories. They all differ from each other. They all are his. He is worthy of them. He will wear these glories for ever. Yea, his saints will greatly rejoice in all which results unto him from it; as they will in casting their crowns at his feet, and saying, Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.   Samuel Eyles Pierce

However, I will speak of the glorious honor of my Lord’s majesty, as he may be pleased to give me utterance. Ist. Of his Essential and Personal Glories. His Essential Glory is this: he is one in Essence with the Father and the Spirit, true and very God.. He is Jehovah God over all, blessed for ever. He is God and Man. His glory, as such, is set forth in the 8th chapter of the Proverbs, and in the Ist chapter of the Colossians. In the former, he says, I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths I was brought forth; when there were no mountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: when he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when, he appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him. Then it was Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. See verses, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Here is the first place in all the written word, in which we have Christ speaking as the first-born of all Jehovah’s thoughts, views, purposes, and designs: as the man in God, who was with God, and was God, the Fellow of the Lord of Hosts; for Christ, as God-Man, is not one in the Essence, but he is taken up into personal union With one in the Essence.

In the first chapter of the Colossians, verses 15, 16, 17, you have the personal glories of Christ thus expressed and set forth: Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things,. and by him all things consist. Here an account is given of the ancient, personal, primordial glories of Christ, God-Man. All the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in him. He is God manifest in the flesh. The Son of the living God dwelleth by personal union and inhabitation, in the Man Christ. He is heir of all things the Image of the Invisible God the Brightness of Glory. In him, Jehovah in all his persons and. perfections, shines forth to the very uttermost manifestation thereof. Hence he is styled the Image of the Invisible God. This is Christ’s personal glory. He it is in whom my soul delighteth, says Jehovah the Father. Isaiah, 42:1. If Christ were not in his divine nature and person as one in the Essence, God essentially, he had not been in our nature God and Man truly. The one is the foundation of the other.& so that you may look on him in his essential and personal glory, and behold him who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Thus I have given you a glimpse of our Lord’s personal glory: that is, I have spoken a few words concerning it.     Samuel Eyles Pierce

The essential Three, who exist by a necessity of nature in the self existing essence, who are coequally, co-essentially, and co-eternally one in the incomprehensible Godhead, the ever blessed Jehovah; whose life of independent blessedness consists in their mutual inbeing, in-dwelling, communion, and enjoyment of each other in a participation of all the perfections of Godhead ; to which nothing can be added, and from which nothing can be detracted; were pleased, for the manifestation of the glory of all the divine perfections of their one infinite nature, to create an innumerable quantity of atoms, and out of them to produce and form all things visible and invisible: the heavens, with all their hosts ; the earth, with all that is therein ; angels, and the souls of men; and this was
performed in the space of six days! All which we understand by the revealed account which Moses gives us, by the inspiration of the Spirit of God, in the first and second chapters of Genesis. Thus, “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” Heb. XI: 3.

The essential Three in the one Jehovah, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, spake, and all things visible and invisible were produced: and the eternal Spirit gave motion to all ; and thus Time began. The earth, thus created, lay covered over with water ; and there was darkness between the face of the great deep, and the clouds or cataracts of Heaven : and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of. the waters. As time began its round from the moment this motion was given, it is a full proof of the eternity of the Holy Spirit. He it was who gave motion to the Heavens, and thus set the universe a going; so that from thence time went on, and the works of God were brought into order and perfection.        Samuel Pierce

The quotes from Pierce above gives the believer enough meat to worship and adore the living God for all eternity. It removes our minds from the present and lifts us to behold the very glory of God. The eternal triune God who existed and exists in perfect Oneness and nothing can be added to Him created a universe which manifests His glory but adds nothing to Him and does not increase His glory. The Father has an infinite and eternal delight in the Son and out of that delight He created all things through the Son and for the Son. The universe, then, is a display of the love the Father has for the Son.

It was also out of this mutual delight within the Trinity that God created men in His own image. This delight was such that from all eternity God decreed to manifest the glory of His grace in saving sinners. This is to say that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is also the Gospel of the glory of God and that in fact apart from the focus of the glory of God in the face of Christ there is no true Gospel being set forth. If we put man at the center of the Gospel or make man the focus of the Gospel, we no longer have a true Gospel. The One who set the heavens in motion is the One that all things were created for and is the One from whom all true glory comes from. It is not wonder, then, that Paul teaches us that whatever we do, we are to do it to the glory of God.

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. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? 9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. 10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 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.

There are at least three ways of looking at this glorious passage of Scripture in Isaiah 53. One is to think of it as a metaphor as some type and treat it as if it had no real fulfillment in Christ. The second way to treat it is to treat of it in a humanistic way or in a man-centered way. The third way is to look at it in a God-centered way and look for the glory of God on display. I would argue that since Christ told the men in Luke 24 that the Scriptures spoke of Him that the God-centered approach is correct. Since Paul also said that he preached nothing but Christ and Him crucified that the God-centered approach was Paul’s approach as well. Then, thinking of what Paul said of the Gospel in II Corinthians 4:1-6 that it was the Gospel of the glory of Christ and that God “is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,” we can know that the central points of the Gospel and the cross of Christ have to do with the glory of God.

If Christ was pierced through for the transgressions of others and crushed for their iniquities, then who did this piercing and who did the crushing? If Christ was scourged so that sinners could be healed, who did the deepest and most real of the scourging? The text says “the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” This is to say that the supreme and majestic God of all glory poured forth His wrath for the sin of others on His Son. Men deserved this wrath and yet the Lord Jesus Christ was willingly crushed and scourged for it. But how in the world does this shine forth the glory of God?

Acts 2:22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know– 23 this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

The Lord Jesus Christ was not killed by men in such a way that there is no glory of God involved, but instead God testified to who this Christ was by working miracles, wonders, and signs through Him. Men wanted to take Him out and make Him king at times, but God had a predetermined plan to have this Christ nailed to the cross by the hands of godless men who put Him to death. Behold the glory of our God. This was what He had planned from eternity past and He carried it out by the willing actions of others. Behold the glory of our God in this eternal plan where His perfect wrath was satisfied that sinners could go free. Behold the glory of our God in His perfect mercy and grace toward sinners in that He sent a Savior who was a perfect Sacrifice in the place of sinners. Behold the glory of our God who hates sin so much that He poured out His wrath on His Son so that He could be just and the Justifier of sinners. Behold the glory of our God in providing the only true and perfect propitiation for the sins of wicked and vile sinners. The cross should bring all to their knees in worship before this God of all glory.

Today is the day where children and adults have looked forward to and prepared with great anticipation. No, it is not the Sabbath day and it is not the day of the coming of Christ. But instead it is a day where people have looked forward to and spent a great amount of money to give gifts to others. But why do they do this? Is it truly to worship the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it to help them love God with all of their beings? No, it is a time for family and friends.

It is bewildering to me how and why so many people get caught up in a day where so much sin happens and say it is because of the birth of Christ. But is it a day where the resurrected Savior reigns (in the hearts of people)? Is it a day where people flee from all known sin because of the crucified Savior? Is it a day where people seek broken and humbled hearts because a humble Savior died on the cross for their pride? Is it a day where people seek inward and true brokenness because the broken body of the Savior was offered up in their place?

Without necessarily saying there is not a right way to celebrate the birth of Christ on this day, there is no command and no example in the Bible of doing so. The purpose of the birth of Christ was for Him to come and manifest the glory of God. The purpose of the birth of the human body of Christ was to be an instrument through which the glory of the Divinity would shine forth. The purpose of the birth of the human body of Christ was so that He would go to the cross and suffer and die to the glory of God the Father. The purpose of the birth of the human body of Christ was so that He would be resurrected and then ascend to the glory of God the Father. But was He born so that people would celebrate the birth?

The Divine Son of God was never born, but instead took a human body to Himself. When human beings focus on His humanity to the exclusion of the Divinity and the purposes which He has set out, it would appear that they would be going contrary to His will and to His express declarations. Sure it makes people feel good and deceives them into thinking that all of their holiday activities should be considered as worship, but has God ever commanded such a thing and do we have a biblical example of such a thing?

At the very least this is a day for a person to be zealous and guard the heart from crass materialism and (more importantly) crass idolatry and false worship. One can be a very giving person and do it because “it is the season”, but that unless what we do is truly out of love for God and His glory this is not the day for a season like that. It is so easy to set out an idol (an image of Christ) and think we are honoring Him. It is so easy to be caught up in the nice things of life, have a big celebration, and think that we are honoring Him. But true worship is never easy and is only obtained with a battle for the heart. True prayer and true worship can only happen when people have a spiritual battle and their hearts are humbled and broken before God. So far I have never seen or heard of a people that have gathered on this day to seek from the Lord broken and humbled hearts that they may worship. No, instead of that the day is given to a vast variety of merry and Mary things.

If December the 25th of any year or in reality any day of any year is to be a day of worship, people should realize that all true worship begins with a humbled and broken heart. As Psalm 51:17 teaches us, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” There is no worship apart from a broken and a contrite heart since that is the only acceptable sacrifice/worship of the Savior. It is only that broken and contrite heart that is broken of self and so exalts Christ who went to the cross out of love for the Father and His glory rather than follow the desires of a human body that wanted to flee.

All the activities of December 25th are not worship regardless of how religious they are apart from that only true sacrifice. All the activities of December 25th are not worship apart from a broken heart that loves Christ. As the modern professing “Church” has been given over to a hardened heart and external rituals, it is not surprising if December 25th is just one more ritual that a people who love pleasure and seek for God to bless their rituals do. But let us not kid ourselves into thinking that this is truly a holy day in which Christ is truly honored above any other. God has given us one day out of seven to do this and all the trappings that have come with this day are not consistent with broken and humbled hearts seeking His glory in all things. People are damned by the rituals and external activities of professing “churches” which deceive them, so this day can also be a day of great deception. May God grant some people hearts that are broken and humbled in His presence and grant them true worship in the sight of His glory in the face of the resurrected Christ.

Today is Reformation Day in 2013. What was the big deal about this and why should it even be remembered? Do people remember these days just to keep themselves from Halloween activities? One could only hope that is not the case. The Reformation was a huge movement of God and it is good to remember that. It was a time that God has started working in men earlier than Luther, but during the life of Luther the Reformation came to a head. The glorious doctrines of God were set out and stated in ways that provide a foundational way of thinking for all time.

The most magnificent theme of the Reformation was Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be the Glory). While one may disagree with that and assert that justification by faith alone was the main issue, I would argue that one cannot understand justification by faith alone in its biblical context apart from the glory of God. Roman Catholicism had worked and worked and ended up having its teaching essentially being man-centered and putting the works and acts of men over those of God, or at least where man was still in control. During the time of the Reformation the Roman Catholic teaching was jettisoned and refuted for the biblical teaching of a thorough God-centeredness.

One can look at justification by faith alone and have a man-centered way of looking at it, but when one does that the biblical Gospel is distorted and turned into a false Gospel. When man is at the center, man must come up with his own faith and that is what God responds to. But in the biblical Gospel it is God who gives faith and therefore man responds to God with a faith given to him by God. In the man-centered gospel, man’s faith is the issue and so in the modern day the focus is on man praying a prayer, stating an agreement to some propositional truths, or perhaps just making an act of the will. But when God is at the center of the Gospel as He really is, man must pray for God to give him a new heart by which he can have faith. When God is at the center of the Gospel, the glory of God is seen and propositional truths (thought important and even vital) go along with the spiritual sight of the soul beholding the glory of God. When God is at the center of the Gospel, the important act of the will (just as in John 1:12-13) is that of God. The vital act of will is that God must will so that man can believe from a new heart.

In the God-centered Gospel justification is not primarily for the sake of man, but for the glory of the grace of God. The biblical emphasis of faith is really on Christ and grace, but when man turns that emphasis on self, man has rejected the true nature of faith and of grace. God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace (Eph 1:5-7) and not because man came up with faith and not because man is so worth it. The glory of God is worth God saving man or man would not be saved at all.

The cross of Jesus Christ declares that God will glorify Himself in the salvation of man rather than God declaring the worth of man and how He couldn’t live without man. At the cross we see the glory of God put on display in ways that should put man on his knees in utter amazement rather than think of himself as worthy in some way. The cross declares the glory of God in saving sinners because of Himself and His own commitment to His own glory rather than anything good about man. The cross declares the perfect justice of God because He saves sinners in a perfectly just way. The cross declares the perfect holiness of God because He does all for His own glory. The cross declares the perfect love of God because the Father loved Himself so much that He sent the Son to die for sinners to the glory of His own name. The cross declares the perfect love of God because the Son loved the Father so much that He went to save sinners that the Father had chosen. The cross declares the perfect love of God because the Holy Spirit was purchased at the cross by Christ who then applies the love of God to sinners He has chosen to love. The cross declares the power of God because in it we see His power over death and His power to win sinners and grant to sinners a new heart and a new life by the resurrected Savior.

Essentially, then, the Reformation is a declaration of the glory of God and His commitment to His own glory in and over all things. This primary thought must be taken to heart by the professing Church today and bow before the living God. If the professing Church stays focused on scholarship (not bad in and of itself) and teaching doctrine in a man-centered and as a philosophy rather than on the glory of God, we will find ourselves in great need of a new Reformation. Perhaps, however, we already are. What we see are professing churches seeking everything instead of the God of glory to come in and among them in great power in order to manifest His glory in and through them. This shows that we have become man-centered (among the Reformed in name too) and are in great need of our great God to turn us back to Himself. Nothing will turn us except God Himself. How badly we need that lesson today.

O LORD, I yield myself to the clear radiance and full discovery of they word, to be convinced by it of sin. I know, with infallible certainty, that I have sinned ever since I could discern between good and evil, in thought, word, and deed—in every period, condition, and relation of life; every day, against every commandment. (Thomas Adam, Private Thoughts on Religion)

It is easy (more or less) to confess our belief in inerrancy and a belief that men are sinful. It is relatively easy to express outrage when people deny that men are sinful. We are amazed when we see people justify their sin and themselves before God and others. But perhaps we shouldn’t be so amazed. It is true of us all, but just to differing degrees. How many people really and truly want to see the depths of his or her sin? How many are willing to have others (aside from jokes and things like that) see that they are anything less than perfect?

In this short confession we see a brutal reality concerning ourselves. We are not yielded to a full searching and discovery of the Word of God. We don’t want to be convinced of sin in many areas as we don’t want to repent. It is easy to read the Psalms as long as we don’t take them too seriously. In Psalm 19:12 the Psalmist realizes that he cannot discern his errors and yet knows that he must be forgiven those. In Psalm 26:2 he cries out to God to examine him and try him in both his mind and heart. In Psalm 32:5 he did not hide his sin but confessed them. In Psalm 139:23-24 the Psalmist is praying for God to search him and know his heart. The Psalmist knew that God knew all things, so he was clearly wanting to know his own sin or hurtful ways.

Psalm 19:12 Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.

Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and try me; Test my mind and my heart.

Psalm 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.

Psa 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

The challenge of Thomas Adam and the Scriptures is to know our own hearts, or at least know them much better. There is nothing beneficial about hiding sin in our hearts from ourselves and God. As Proverbs 28:13 tells us with no real hidden meaning, “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.” There is no spiritual prosperity when a person conceals his sins rather than confesses them and turns from them.

We are left with two options. One, we can ignore the teaching of Scripture about our own hearts and go on in a spiritually lost or impoverished way. Two, we can begin to seek the Lord to open the hidden parts of our hearts to our own eyes so that we can repent. After all, Jesus said more than once that if we love Him we will obey His commandments. If we are not willing to search our hearts and repent so that we can obey, that is a telling sign that we don’t love Jesus. Do we really, really want to know God more? Then we must know more of our sin so we can repent of it. Do we really, really want to be in His presence more? Then we need to seek to know our sin in order to repent of it and see a pure heart. Jesus promised that the pure in heart will see God (Mat 5:8).

Sure enough it is easy at the moment just to go on in a nice way of life and perhaps a nice external Christian way of doing things. But if we love Christ we must go to war against sin in our own hearts and minds. The place to start is by praying that God would give us a desire for these things and then give us an increasing desire. We say we love the Scriptures, but do we love them enough to bow before the Lord who speaks in and through them to show us how they are His sword to stab deeply into our hearts to show what is there? It is easy to love the beauty of Scripture or perhaps its majestic doctrines, but there is the other side which cuts away at the darkness in our hearts by the shining of light. When that happens we must repent regardless of the pain. To do any less would be to keep hurtful things in our hearts that are directly against God.

Doctrinal truth should be preached always, openly, without compromise, and never dissembled or concealed. There is no offence in it; it is the staff of uprightness. Who gave you the right and power to confine Christian doctrine to particular persons, places, times, and cases, when Christ wills that it should be freely published and reign throughout the world?…Preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). (Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will).

While there are some (many?) who affirm the words of total depravity agreeing that there is an inability in man, they want to hide that teaching from those they preach what they call “the gospel” to. If Luther and the pioneer Reformers were correct and that the enslaved will is vital to the message of the Gospel, then what we have is a necessary truth being hidden from souls. Well, some say, while it is true that the will is enslaved men don’t need to know that until after they are saved. But if this is a necessary part of the Gospel, then we have not preached the Gospel until we have taught this doctrine. If people are saved from a bound will, they need to know that their will cannot make a spiritual choice until they are saved from the enslavement of that will.

The doctrine of the enslaved will is necessary to two twin teachings that cannot be separated. We have the utter helplessness of man in his sin and the sovereignty of grace. If the will of man is not enslaved to sin, the devil, and to self then man is not utterly helpless as the pioneer Reformers taught who taught on this subject what the Bible teaches. “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom 8:6-8). There is no way that a non-converted person can please God in any way and that includes making a choice for God. Any choice an un-converted makes will not be a choice for God though it may include God. The will is bound to sin, self, and the devil. When we do not teach people that their will is enslaved we are not teaching them the truth and reality of sin and what they need to be saved from. It is to compromise the truth and to be opposite of the Bible in this area.

The second twin teaching is that of sovereign grace. In one sense this was really the heart of the Reformation. Rome wants to be able to dispense grace as it pleases rather than leave sinners in the hands of God to dispense grace as He pleases. This is true in the matter of justification. The real issue with justification by faith alone as the Reformers taught it was that of grace alone. God justifies whom He will and He does so as He pleases. True and pure grace is sovereign or it is not grace. The only kind of grace in the Bible or in reality is found in Jesus Christ and is absolutely sovereign. There is no other kind of grace.

While man thinks that he can hold off on this teaching what he is doing is denying the fullness of the Gospel and only giving people a part of the Gospel and leaving man in his own hands to dispense salvation to himself. There can be no Gospel preached apart from grace and there is no grace apart from a sovereign grace. This is part of the very glory of God. “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” (Rom 9:15-16). When Moses cried out to see the glory of God in Exodus 33:13-18, he was given the previous words. In the Gospel of John the very glory of God is seen in Christ and it is a glory of grace and truth. There is no glory in the Gospel apart from the grace of God and the only grace is the sovereign grace of God. When we try to hide from people their bondage to sin and of the sovereignty of grace we are hiding the true glory of the Gospel from them.

The Gospel is all about the grace of God and the glory of God. Sinners are only saved when God shines the light of the knowledge of His glory in the hearts of sinners that they may see that glory in the face of Christ (II Cor 4:6). Sinners need to see the glory of God in saving sinners and not their own glory in salvation. When we present a God that is focused on them it is their glory that is the issue. But when we present the truth of God and how He is focused on Himself and His own glory and only saves by a sovereign grace, then that takes their eyes off of themselves and places it on God. After all, they need to see His glory and not their own. Until human beings see how utterly helpless they are they will not look to a sovereign grace to save them and that is the only kind of grace there is. Holding back the teaching on the enslaved will is compromising the Gospel. We need to repent.