Genuine Christianity Rare 24

June 23, 2014

What pains do many luke-warm professors take to keep themselves fast asleep in carnal security! If they see their wretched case laid open by any Christian writer, or faithful minister, either they are ready to carp or quarrel with such, of to conclude, that they themselves know better, that the man is mistaken, and that there is no need of so much strictness and preciseness, nor of that wonderful change of heart which only a few enthusiasts here and there make so absolutely necessary to salvation; but on the contrary, they hear any formal, daubing, unawakened minister preach, or read any dry lifeless (wrongly called religious) book, how eager are they to catch at whatever may sooth them in their delusion! and are as much pleased with those who help to lull them in their fatal dream, as a child is pleased to be lulled asleep by the fables and tales of its nurse.    Sir Richard Hill.

In the modern day it is thought to be rude and unloving to suggest to people that they are unconverted. It is seems very hard for ministers to preach in such a way as to point out to people that they are unconverted. This leads ministers (in name anyway) to be positive and try to make the people feel good. On the other hand, certain types will try to preach in such a way as to make people feel good and confident in their salvation that they have prayed a prayer or that they are moral.

Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Jeremiah 14:14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.

The Scriptures also teach us about the great problem of the many false prophets that do and will abound. Part of this great deception that is going on is that there are religious leaders who are deceived as well. Deception goes on in the realms of liberalism and immorality, but there is also a great deception (if not greater) going on within what is called the “Christian Church” as well. The Lord Jesus Christ said with great emphasis and clarity that men must be born again to see or enter the kingdom, but the false prophets either deny that is true or they find other ways for men to accomplish this. The other ways for men to accomplish this are ways of deception.

The false prophets (preachers and ministers) will tell you that the new birth is just a picture of what happens, or perhaps an analogy of sorts. Others go on deceiving by saying that infants are saved when they are baptized and that by baptism adults can be saved too. Some stress that after baptism one needs to take the Lord’s Supper and with those one will be ushered into the kingdom. Still others stress the great need to pray a prayer, walk an aisle, or perhaps sign a card or squeeze a hand. This is a way to get great numbers in the “church” and various other programs to be funded. But Jesus said that a person must be born from above and that this must be done by the Holy Spirit rather than what men can do.

There are ministries across the land that focus on moral issues and conservative issues, but again the great need is not to first become moral and first to become this or that, the great need is for God to do a work in the human heart. We see in Matthew 7 that false prophets will abound and following that we see how people are deceived. Some think that their orthodoxy saved them. Some thought that their works saved them. Some thought that their prophesying or preaching would save them. But all of them were told to depart from Christ.

This real change of heart is absolutely necessary to salvation and yet people seem to rarely hear about this. When they do, they don’t want to hear more of it. Formalism seems to reign in America in many circles under the guise of moralism and orthodoxy. You can believe in the most conservative and orthodox confession that there is and yet be unconverted. You can be as moral as a human being can be and yet be unconverted. In place after place there are dry and lifeless sermons given to a dry and lifeless people and all are deluded into thinking that they are converted. We must wake up and seek the Lord for true life! The modern version of Christianity is no better than the Old Testament Jews who offered up sacrifices and worship to God who told them to take it away. We must wake up and be about waking others up. The delusion of life is simply that, a delusion. We must have God or we will perish.

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Examining the Heart 50

June 21, 2014

Look more at justification than sanctification. In the highest commands consider Christ, not as an exactor to require, but a debtor, committed to the work according to His promise. If you have looked at work, duties and qualifications, more than at the merits of Christ, it will cost your dear. No wonder you go about complaining; graces may be evidences, the merits of Christ alone (without them) must be the foundation of your hope to stand on. Christ only can be the hope of glory (Col 1:27).    Thomas Willcox

The thought here has to do with the foundation that the sinner stands on and what the sinner looks to for assurance. If a sinner looks to his work, duties, and qualifications for justification, all would say that the sinner is trusting in self and a false gospel. But what of those who look to their own works, duties, and qualifications in sanctification? Can we say that they are believing in Christ alone? After all, can we do works and duties enough to sanctify us or is Christ Himself our sanctification as well? The one who believes in Christ is one who will always believe in Christ. The one who repents and believes will be the one who always (in this life) repents. There is never a point where a person is supposed to rest and trust in works, duties, and qualifications for salvation.

I Corinthians 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

This text teaches us that Christ is our righteousness and so we know that we have no righteousness but that of Christ imputed to us. We will tell all who try to have works and duties as part of their righteousness that they believe in a false Gospel. We will also tell people that Christ is our wisdom and we will chastise others if they try to rest in their own wisdom. We know that our redemption as purchased by the blood of Christ and nothing else and will fight for the idea that our works and duties have nothing to do with obtaining our redemption. But Christ is also our sanctification. But the contrast, it seems, for some reason we are just fine with letting people encroach on the work of Christ by finding it okay to have sanctification by works and duties. This is not to say that the justified person will not have works and duties, but the way of sanctification is by Christ and not works and duties.

The sinner that is to come in the presence of God will never have a way to come but by and through Christ. Once can never come into the presence of God based on his or her own duties and works at any point. Our prayers and our services are tainted with sin and apart from Christ they have nothing in them that God is pleased with. God is not pleased with our sacrifices as such and out duties as such, but all things must be done in and through Christ. When the text above (I Corinthians 1:30-31) tells us that it is by His doing that a person is in Christ, it teaches us with great clarity that it is not by our doing that we are in Christ. When the Father places a person in Christ, the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are all in Christ. We must not yank sanctification out of Christ or out of the rest of the list as if we could do that in our own power.

If sanctification did come in whole or in part by the works and duties of man, then man would have something to boast about. But the whole of salvation and sanctification are in and of Christ and so there is nothing for man to boast about regarding himself, but indeed all he has to boast about is Christ and Christ alone. The Gospel of grace alone is the Gospel of grace alone for the whole of the Christian life and eternity. The Gospel of grace alone is all about Christ and not about the duties and works of man in justification or sanctification. It is all rooted in and worked by Christ. We must not let our views of sanctification be out of Christ.

It is true (as Willcox points out) that graces are evidences, but they are not what we must stand on or trust in as our hope. Christ and the merits of Christ are our only hope. While the true believer will have evidences of grace in the heart and life, those evidences of grace do not take the place of Christ and His merits as what the believer stands on. The believer will have times when there are obvious evidences, but at others the evidences cannot be seen by the despairing eye. At that point the sinner must know that the absence of graces must never take the place of Christ and His merits. At times when God is showing the believer the depths of his or her sin the believer may hit rock bottom and thrash about looking for comfort in anything. There is no comfort in anything or any one but Christ Himself. The merits of Christ saves sinners and the sanctification of sinners can have nothing to do with his justification. Christ and only Christ should be boasted in and trusted in for justification and sanctification.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 11

June 20, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

The doctrine of God is put on display here in some ways, one of these being the fact that God loves Himself and does all for His own glory. This text, if one has the eyes to see, is truly all about God and how God does all for Himself and His own glory. The modern thinking of God and how He is so focused on man is really another aspect of the original lie of the devil which was “you shall be like God.” Man wants to focus on himself and so wants God to focus on man, but in fact God is focused on Himself and man should be focused on God. When that is reversed, man is actually being his own god and wants all to be focused on himself.

This shows us the profound error that modern theology and the modern “gospel” has fallen into. The doctrine of God has been watered down in order to make the “gospel” more palatable to man, which is simply an effort to have God be made acceptable to man. The issue, however, is that wicked and sinful man needs to be made acceptable to a thrice holy God. There is a huge difference between the modern so-called “gospel” of a God that is focused on man over Himself and the biblical God who does all for Himself. Man loves himself and thinks God should love him, but God loves Himself and it is only by grace that He works in man so that man may love Him.

When the Scripture teach us as in the text above that God chose sinners before the foundation of the world, the mind cannot really grasp this as human beings are locked in time to a great degree. But we should know that before a human being was born and God chose to save that person, God saves for His own name’s sake and for His own glory. This is one way of saying that God loves Himself and does all for His own glory. God the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. When the Father loves sinners in Christ, that means He loves Himself in Christ. When Christ is said to go to the cross, we can know that Christ kept the Great Commandment perfectly and so His love was for the Father in all He did and that included the cross. This shows us that when the text says that sinners have redemption by the blood of Christ, sinners are saved because Christ loved the Father which is how God loves Himself as triune.

When the text tells us that God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace, this should teach us to look at what that means. If all spiritual blessings are given to sinners in Christ and all grace is given to sinners in Christ, then surely it is clear that God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of Christ who has all the grace of God located in Him. The Lord Jesus, on the other hand, came out of love for the Father to make the name of the Father known. Christ manifested the very glory of God in all He said and did. When Christ manifested the glory of God out of love for the Father, what we see is the glory of the Father and part of that glory is His love for the Son who is the Beloved in Scripture. When sinners are saved by grace to the praise of the glory of His grace, what we see is the love of God for Himself as triune on display. The focus of saving sinners, then, is not the sinner in and of him or herself, but on God as triune.

The Gospel of the glory of God is exactly that and nothing less. Sinners should be amazed that God would save them and even more amazed that He saves them out of love for His own name and glory. This takes the focus off of man and puts it squarely on God Himself and in this sinners can have great comfort. While it seems as if the vast majority of people say that Christ died for me and made the deduction that Christ loves them for themselves, that is contrary to the nature and beauty of biblical grace. Christ died for sinners because He loved the Father and the Father loved the Son. Sinners have something far greater than their own worth and value to rest upon in terms of assurance. They have the very nature of God’s love for God to rest upon. The very nature of God is love, but it is love within Himself as triune. Here is something to rejoice over. God loves Himself and out of that great love in the Trinity He saves sinners in order to manifest His love for His own name and glory. Instead of the Gospel resting on the changing value and merit of sinners, it rests upon God’s unchanging love for Himself.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 10

June 19, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

This passage in Ephesians 1 (above) is simply soaked with grace and running over on at points with the riches and glory of His grace. This is not a passage where the history is important and it is not a passage where there are intricate details to draw out in order to get to a meaning. This passage proclaims the glory of God in what He has done in saving sinners by grace and His grace alone.

The thought of a justification or some form of salvation that was a mixture of human effort and/or works is foreign to this text. The specific Actors (those doing actions) in all things in this text is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. All that they did and do comes to human beings by grace and grace alone. All that human beings do in this text is have grace shown them and have that grace poured out upon them in super abundance. There are no works mentioned or alluded to regarding salvation and all is about the glory of God and His grace. What is on display in this passage is the grace and glory of God rather than the worth, dignity, and ability of men. It is all about God and His initiative, His works, His glory, and His works.

We see nothing in this passage about man making a choice for God, but we do see God making a choice of men and doing that before the foundation of the world. This is to say that before the world came into being and then man came into being, God chose according to His good pleasure. He did not wait to see what man would do, but instead He chose Himself and did so in order to exalt His glory and His grace. The so-called free-will of man is not mentioned and no room for it is left in the far greater glory of His will and grace.

We don’t see man’s ability to love God or to love men here, but instead we see the love of God on display. It was God who took sinners and His enemies and predestined them to adoption. But again, we don’t see these things depending on the will of man and the love of man, we see these things resting entirely on God alone. It was God who chose men through Christ to Himself and He did this according to His good pleasure. This is to say that it is not up to men to be saved at the time of their good pleasure, but it is all according to the good pleasure of God.

This passage of Holy Writ sets out all things in accordance with the glory of God and His grace. The Gospel is all about God freely bestowing grace on sinners quite apart from their merit, worth, and works. If we had spiritual eyes to see this with clarity it would put us on our faces in awe and reverence for God who saves sinners despite their enmity and despite their being children of the devil and takes their sins upon Himself by grace and delivers them from their bondage by grace. This great grace is exalted high about their wickedness and what they are by nature. This great grace glorifies God more than the sin of man was opposite to His glory. The sins of men are forgiven in accordance with the riches of His grace and not on account with who they are or what they have done.

It is common in the modern day to focus on morality, family issues, and societal problems rather than the grace of God in the Gospel. In doing so, men have brought works and conditions to the Gospel rather than exalt the Gospel of grace alone. Men have brought conditions to the Gospel and conditions that they are to meet and can meet. In this they are like the Pharisees who did what they did to the honor of themselves and also lowered the law in order that they would be able to keep it. There are no conditions that men can keep in order to move God to save them. There are no works that men can do so that God will save them. Men are dead in sins and trespasses and they must have God make them alive in Christ and the only way He will do this is by grace alone. In this sinners are to find great hope as they have no hope in themselves in reality. Sinners must learn to die to self and their own ability that they will then look to grace alone. Instead of looking to self and the will of self to come up with faith and repentance, sinners need to look to Christ for faith and repentance. The glory of the Gospel is that it is all of grace from eternity past to eternity future. That means it is all about the glory of God. All should bow in worship.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 9

June 18, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

The grace of God is focused in Christ. All spiritual blessings come to sinners by grace and only because of Christ and that grace is in Christ. All grace is given without cause in the sinner but instead all the reasons and causes of grace are found in God Himself. Because all the reasons and causes of grace are found in God, this means that sinners can be saved regardless of who they are because God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace.

The previous paragraph can be believed by the intellect and admired in many ways, but when God visits the soul with sore afflictions and the evil one accuses that poor soul, it is a battle to believe that God saves sinners by grace alone. It is one thing to believe with the intellect that God redeems sinners by the blood of Christ, but it is quite another when the soul is afflicted with sin and accusations. The soul will have a great sense of its own sin and the accusations of the evil one will make it worse. The despairing soul will see nothing good in itself and will begin to look to itself for a reason or ground for why God would save such a wretch and grant forgiveness to such a wretch. It is true, sinner, that you are not worth Christ dying for you. However, God is worthy for Christ to save sinners for God by His blood. This great and glorious grace is for the worst of sinners! This grace has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb and not because any human is worthy of anything but the wrath of God. This grace has been purchased because God is worthy to save sinners.

What or whom can the worst of sinners look to for redemption and forgiveness of sins? What can the worst of sinners find that they can have confidence in? They know that they merit nothing but the wrath of God. They know that if the Gospel is according to them they will perish. Forgiveness of sins is not based on how much faith we have, not how much we have repented, and not based on any good works. The forgiveness of sins is in accordance with the riches of His grace. All poor sinners who are afflicted with trials and inward sin need to consider this passage. They are forgiven in accordance with the riches of His grace. This is reason for sinners to forget themselves and look to Christ! This is reason for sinners to know that they can be forgiven based on another. Oh the glory of such a grace that can forgive the worst of sinners of the worst of sins!

But, says the vile sinner, I have profaned the name of God and I have cursed Him in my heart. But, says the vile sinner, I have sinned against Christ and against knowledge of Christ. But Christ is the Savior of the vilest of sinners. Christ is the Savior of those with horrid thoughts and hearts that have born horrible enmity toward God. Christ died for those who were at enmity with God. Why did He do that? It was not because they were worthy to die for, but it was in accordance with the riches of His grace. How rich is the grace of God? The poor doubting sinner must know that the riches of God’s grace is far greater than the spiritual poverty of the wretched sinner. It is not just that God saved out of His riches of grace, but in accordance with the riches of His grace. This is to say that the riches of grace are infinite because God is infinite. This is to say that sinners should know that regardless of the vileness and wickedness of their own hearts, God saves in accordance with the riches of His grace and not in accordance with the wickedness of their hearts.

Sinners, take hope. This grace has been lavished upon you if you are in Christ. God the Father does not show just enough grace to take care of the most of your sins, but indeed He has lavished grace upon you in Christ. The Father has not shown you just enough grace to take care of all your sins, but instead He has lavished you with His grace in Christ. For the poor sinner who just cannot lift up his head to behold Christ, know that this grace has been lavished upon the poor in spirit and the contrite in heart. God does not just barely save sinners, but He lavishes them with His grace. God abounds in grace and lavishes His grace upon the poor in spirit and those who are weak in themselves. Yes, you have no ability, but He has all ability. It is true that you are not worthy, but look to the wonder and the glory of grace. Poor and wretched sinners, Christ died to save those like you and not the proud and the strong and the holy in their own eyes. Forgiveness is according to the riches of His grace which He lavishes on His people in Christ. There is no room for hope in yourself, but there is a full and abounding hope in His grace which is infinitely rich and is lavished upon poor sinners. Look to Christ.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 8

June 17, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

It is utterly and absolutely vital to maintain and defend the doctrine of justification by grace alone. It is necessary to do so because it is biblical, but also because the freedom of God in giving grace and salvation must be asserted at all costs. It is also necessary to maintain this because of the attributes of God. While self-absorbed and self-centered humans think of themselves at the center of all things even if they have a God-centered theory, the fact of the matter is that God is the center of all things. Some non-Christians see how little they are and they are the ones defending the protection of the earth and animals to the detriment of human beings. It gives them the idea that they are serving something larger than themselves.

In verse 6 above we see that God freely bestows grace on sinners in the Beloved. This “freely” teaches us that grace comes to sinners because of God and not because of some good found in us. This teaches us that grace comes to sinners solely because of who God is and not because of something worthy or meritorious about us or done by us. Grace is given to sinners without any cause found in them or done by them, but instead all the cause of grace is found in God. This is also seen in the fact that this grace is given to sinners in the Beloved. Sinners must be in Christ to have this grace. In one sense we can see this because all spiritual blessings are only given in Christ (v. 3). It is only those who are united to Christ by grace who receive grace because of Christ who alone has merited and procured grace for His people. This is a great encouragement to sinners who have sensitive consciences and who see something of the gravity of sin. They don’t deserve grace, but that is no bar to them receiving grace. The bar to receiving grace is to think that one can be worthy of it to some degree.

This freedom of God to show grace quite apart from sinners deserving it does not lead people into sin when they understand it, but it leads and drives them to a thirst for God and His glory. Only those who have unregenerate hearts will think of grace as an excuse to sin. But the grace that saves is the grace that will give men a hunger and thirst for righteousness instead of sin. This grace is what moves men to holiness and it is what drives men to behold the glory of God in His grace. Grace comes to sinners in Christ and because of Christ and those who are in Christ live by the life of Christ and their life is Christ. Those who are in Christ have life because of grace and they walk by grace. Those who are in Christ are in the Beloved and while their hearts may stray here and there and nothing they do is perfect, nevertheless they live by grace and grace alone instead of their own imperfect hearts.

The greatness and freeness of this grace because God shows grace because of Himself rather than the sinner is a great encouragement to the worst of sinners to come to God. The poor believer with enlightened eyes may see himself as beyond hope, but his eyes need to be adjusted to behold the grace of God in the Beloved. Sinners are loved in Christ and because of Christ. Sinners are beheld by God in Christ and not standing by themselves. Saved sinners have grace procured for them by Christ and they are to seek it for the sake of His name and not for their own names. It is true that the holier a person is the more that person will have access to grace, but let us never ever make a mistake about where this holiness comes from. True holiness comes by grace and the soul that receives that grace receives more grace. If grace comes because of holiness then that turns grace into something we can obtain by our works. No, no, and a thousand times a thousand no. Holiness comes by grace and the one made holy by grace receives grace upon grace (John 1:16). It is of the fullness of Christ that we receive grace, not because we have worked for it.

What this should and perhaps must teach us is that all should seek grace because of Christ and in the name of Christ. Sinners of all kinds (regenerate and unregenerate) should seek grace because that is the only thing that can regenerate them or make them holy and give them (freely) more of God in Christ. The freeness of grace in terms of its coming apart from our own merit and works should drive us to seek Christ. God loves to save sinners and bring saved sinners to Himself to the praise of the glory of His grace. Seek Him by grace as it is the only way!

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Gospel of Grace Alone 7

June 16, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

The Gospel of grace alone is the Gospel which glorifies God alone as it strips man of any hope in his own works and glory. The Gospel of grace alone is the Gospel which is focused on what God does and on God saving sinners according to Himself and for His own purposes. Those who believe that God saves them for what they do and because of who they are in themselves have no basis for salvation at all. Sinners either believe that God loves them because of who they are or what they have done or they believe He loves them based on who He is. Since God alone is the origin and source of all true love, He must love sinners based on who He is rather than on what sinners are. This is part of the glory of grace. God saves sinners and gives them spiritual blessings according to Himself. God loves sinners because of who He is. God predestines sinners and adopts them because of who He is. God is motivated to save sinners for Himself.

The self-sufficient God saves sinners according to the good pleasure of His will (literal translation) and not according to their own good pleasure. This is getting at the heart of true grace. It was the pleasure of God’s will that moved Him to save sinners and not because the sinner was worthy or did anything that had merit or worth. God saves sinners because He is pleased to save sinners and it is His pleasure to save sinners because it glorifies His grace to do so. Most people seem to think that God will save them whenever they decide that they want to be saved, but that is precisely backwards. God saves sinners according to His own pleasure and when and if He decides to save them. If God saves sinners to the praise of the glory of His grace, then sinners are saved by grace and grace alone. If sinners are saved by grace alone, then there is nothing in them worth saving and no merit in them at all either. Salvation by grace alone means salvation by God alone. God saves according to Himself and the glory of His grace as He pleases. Anything else is something other than grace alone.

The text also shows us this by setting out how grace is given. It tells us that God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace “which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Once again, clearly, grace is only found in the Beloved or in Christ. All spiritual blessings are only found in Christ and are given in Christ alone. But even more, grace is given in manner consistent with grace. While the English word is “freely” and that is at least part of it, we must understand something of the concept as well. For grace to be given freely, it must be given apart from worth, merit, or causation on the part of the one receiving it. If God saved for any other reason that because of who He is and because of His grace, salvation is because of another reason and not because of His grace alone.

If God is to save sinners on the basis of grace and give that grace freely, then God saves by grace and gives grace in accordance with grace. Sinners are saved by a grace that is free of merit on the part of sinners. Sinners are saved by a grace that is free of worth on the part of sinners. Sinners are saved by a grace that is free from the works of the sinner. Sinners are saved by a grace that is free from the morality of the sinner. Sinners are saved by a grace that is free from the righteousness of the sinner. Sinners are saved by a grace that will only save in accordance with grace and so that it is to the praise of the glory of the grace of God. There is no room for the sinner to be a part of any cause in his or her own salvation as that would diminish and detract from the grace of God in saving sinners for His own glory. There is absolutely no room at all for sinners to glory in themselves as they have nothing to boast in. They are saved apart from their own worth and merit and all causation, which leaves them nothing to boast in but the glory of His grace and the glory of the cross of Christ. The Gospel of grace alone was planned by grace, purchased by grace, and applied by grace. This grace is freely bestowed on sinners and so they have nothing to praise and glory in but His grace. Away with the glory of self.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 6

June 15, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

If the mind of the believer could be removed from a worldly way of looking at things that is focused on self and the senses, spiritual things would take the life and focus of the mind and the person would be like an alien in this world. The believer would love different things, live for different things, and the world would not hold any charms for him. Spiritual blessings would take the mind of the believer rather than worldly things. The thought of the blessings of God would be primarily spiritual. The believer would think of the doctrine of election is such a privilege and of such grace that his heart would be taken with God instead of the things of the world.

The idea that the standing of human beings is not of works and not all about the efforts of human choice is rather radical in most places, but then that God Himself would choose people in Christ before the foundation of the world is astounding if one really thinks about it. Not only did God choose people, He chose them to be holy and blameless in His presence. Now this is a spiritual blessing beyond compare! God takes people who are nothing but sin in and of themselves by nature and practice, but instead of casting them into hell for all eternity He sends His Son to die for them and earn for them a perfect righteousness and in that they are considered holy and blameless before God in His Son. One can think of this only in a doctrinal way, but even then this is a great doctrine. But when one thinks of it in the context of an infinite God doing this for His enemies, His grace stands out and is exalted. This is a God worthy of complete adoration and total submission.

But this taking sinners and giving them a standing before Him of being holy and blameless in His presence is not where the wonder and glory of His grace stops, because He takes those people and in great love He predestines them to adoption as sons. Indeed and most assuredly this adoption as sons is in Christ Jesus because all blessings are in Christ Jesus. But it should not be missed that this adoption was done in love. God has taken His enemies, children of the devil, and He loved them and sent His Son to die for those enemies that His love would dwell in them. He took away the chains of their bondage and He took away their nature which was to be children of the devil. Out of love He adopts them as His sons and He makes them heirs of Christ and gives them eternal life rather than what they deserve which is eternal death in hell.

What shines in this glorious reality? It is the grace of God in Christ Jesus. While there is all the talk in the modern day of this universal love of God where He saves all people because He loves all in the same way, this text knows nothing of nonsense like that. This text teaches with great clarity that God chooses some and He loves some. Those whom He sets His love on He adopts as His children. Not all are His children but instead they remain children of the devil and are in bondage to self, the devil, and their sin. The children of God are freed from their bondage and slavery to those things and are now in the Beloved of God and are loved of God. The grace of God shines in this ever so brightly. What distinguishes one lost sinner from another is not the will of man or the works of man, but instead it is the grace of God.

In this great grace of God sinners can rejoice with an everlasting joy. In this great grace of God those who see that they are still sinners and really bad ones at that can rejoice in the grace of God. No, grace does not excuse our sin and is not a motivation to continue in sin, but grace gives comfort to sinners who fight with sin day in and day out. Their hearts accuse them because their motives are not perfect and they know that they have little love and little faith, but God in His great grace has given them a perfect standing in His presence in Christ. These sinners know that they are not perfectly faithful each hour much less all the time, but they have grace in Christ. These sinners know that they can do nothing good unless it comes from Christ first, and yet they would have it no other way. These sinners live by grace and want nothing but grace. The honor and glory is all His and that is exactly what these adopted children want. They want to do all for His glory though they fall far short. But these people have the strength of grace and that is all they need. The God of glory is their God and He is so by grace alone.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 5

June 14, 2014

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.

Here is one of the most comforting passages in all of Scripture, but it is comforting because it sets forth a thorough God-centeredness in terms of grace. We can read passages like this, as is often done, as if it is nothing more than a statement of doctrinal truth or perhaps a sort of historical narrative. But this passage should be read with adoration on the glory of God. It is not possible for passages like this to be analyzed as one analyzes a novel as this passage shines forth from the depths of the glory of God and those depths are unfathomable. It is possible to understand the doctrines of this passage and perhaps the logic of it and yet be blind to the real beauty and glory of it. God has revealed this for the good of His people and He is the good of His people. When the people of God are in awe and wonder of this glorious God, then that is what is best for them.

The finite mind, and especially the fallen finite mind, has no idea of what it means to be blessed with every spiritual blessings in Christ. It is also true that this is something that those who are drawn to God through Christ will grow in understanding of for eternity. But Paul starts off with declaring how blessed God is. Only a Being that is eternally and infinitely blessed could possible give sinners every spiritual blessing. Perhaps we think Paul is blessing God, but it is far more likely He is declaring the glory of how blessed God is. How great and how wonderful is this great God who from His eternal blessedness grants, gives, and procures blessedness for sinful human beings in Christ. Since all of these blessings are in Christ, all of these blessings have been purchased by Christ. But God the Father sent the Son to do these things out of His great kindness and love.

While the world pants after worldly things, the believer is to pant after spiritual things. The world has to work and earn what it gets, unless it steals them, but the believer is given all things by grace. While it is the case that many people obtain worldly wealth from parents and other relatives, many waste that wealth. But all spiritual blessings in Christ are safe and secure in Christ and cannot be wasted or taken. The great wisdom of God is in giving these according to how He is working to mature His children. For all eternity these great spiritual treasures are safe in Christ and so these are available both now and for eternity.

The eternal God is perfectly blessed in all ways. He lives within His perfect triune Being in perfect joy, perfect love, and perfect fellowship. He has utterly no need in His perfect self-sufficiency. It is from this perfect blessedness and self-sufficiency that the saints (all true believers) are given all spiritual blessings in Christ. It is not that God looks upon human beings and picks out the best and the most worthy. It is not as if those who work the hardest or the best are picked out and given blessings for what they have done. It is not those who have worked hard at being holy and have practiced and practiced until they develop some high level of purity. But God, because of who He is, has taken vile and wretched sinners and has chosen them to make them holy and blameless in His sight. This is a blessing beyond human comprehension. The great and blessed God who hates sin has taken some rebels who hate Him and sin against Him on purpose and with great joy and gives them eternal blessings in Christ Jesus. If our hearts were not so hard we would gasp at such a spectacle as that.

But this great God has done this out of sheer and glorious grace. He has taken rebels and those who lived at enmity with them and He has given the all spiritual blessings in Christ by grace alone. These wicked sinners hated holiness, but He has made them holy and granted them a holy standing before Him by grace alone. These wicked sinners had no love for Him at all and lived out of self-love which demonstrated them to be children of the devil, but God has taken His enemies and has taken away their enmity and gives them a perfect standing before Him in Christ and He does that by grace alone. This blessed God is the source of all blessings and He only gives blessings by grace and grace alone. How sinners should fall on their faces while turning from their love for self with disgust and loathing and cry out to God for grace. What a glorious grace this is and all should seek it with zeal.

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Gospel of Grace Alone 4

June 13, 2014

Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

Eph 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:5-6 (above) and Ephesians 2:4-7 set out the glorious truth that God saves sinners for His own name. God saves sinners because (causal) of who He is and not because of what is found in the sinner. Now this is good news because those who know their own hearts know what vile and wretched people they really are in the sight of God. Grace flows from God and so it is directly and inextricably connected to the nature of God. This is to say that the nature of grace and the nature of God are in many ways one and the same since what comes from God must be consistent with His character.

Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

The Gospel of grace alone is also the Gospel of Christ alone. Sinners are said to be justified by faith alone in our day, but that phrase has lost its connection with its partners and so has changed meanings. In the Bible a person is justified by grace alone through faith alone, which is to say that a person is justified by Christ alone. When the Scriptures tell us with great clarity that we are not saved according to our works but according to His purpose and grace (II Tim 1:9), the Scriptures set out the truth in both a positive assertion and a negative assertion as well. In Ephesians 2:4-7 we see that it is the richness of the mercy of God because of His great love with which He loved that is what moved God to save sinners. Sinners are dead in sins and trespasses, but God makes them alive together with Christ. The text is rich with the character and activity of God toward dead sinners. But why does He do this? One, we see that it is because of grace that He does this. Two, we see that it is because He desires to show the surpassing riches of His grace toward sinners in Christ Jesus. Three, all of this is connected to Christ.

If all grace is in Christ and we can say that all grace is obtained or procured by Christ, then we may be able to distinguish between Christ and grace but we must never separate them. When the Bible says that sinners are justified by grace without the works of sinners it is saying that sinners are justified by Christ without the works of sinners. As Ephesians 1:3 teaches that all spiritual blessings are in Christ. II Timothy 1:9 says that this grace sinners are saved by is granted in Christ. Ephesians 1:5 says that God predestines and adopts sinners through Christ to Himself and that is to the praise of the glory of His grace. When sinners are said to be made alive together with Christ (Eph 2:4-7), they are said to be saved by grace. What is set forth here in the pages of Holy Writ is that there is no grace apart from Christ and there is no having Christ apart from grace.

One position that this leads us to is that all that God does in and for sinners is in and through Christ. All that Christ does is by the grace of God and is for the glory of God. We can say for sure that God does not deal with sinners in terms of salvation on the basis of their own works, but He deals with for salvation based on Christ and His works alone. This salvation that comes to sinners has been worked out from eternity in the plans and decrees of God, but it comes to sinners in Christ and it comes on the basis of grace alone. All of God’s plans and relations to sinners He is going to save is in and through Christ alone and yet by grace alone because it is to His glory alone. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. This is great hope to sinners. God does not look to sinners to do some work or even the slightest amount of work in order to be saved. Instead, He works this grace on them to break them of their pride so that they will have no hope in themselves but in Christ alone. The glory of His grace shines brightly throughout the universe as He saves sinners by Christ alone.

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