Thoughts on grace -
“Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke the dungeon flamed with light; My chains fell off my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.” Charles Wesley
"Like a spiritual corpse, a sinner is unable to make a single move toward God, think a single thought about God, or even correctly respond to God—unless God is first present to bring the spiritually dead person to life, which is what Paul says he does do." James M. Boice
“Now let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgment of our faults, praying him to make us so to feel them that it makes us not only confess three or four of them, but also go back even to our birth and acknowledge that there is nothing but sin in us, and that there is no way for us to be reconciled to our God, but by the blood, death and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.” John Calvin
“There are two great truths which from this platform I have proclaimed for many years. The first is that salvation is free to every man who will have it; the second is that God gives salvation to a people whom He has chosen; and these truths are not in conflict with each other in the least degree.” Charles Spurgeon
“Do not stand still disputing about your election, but set to repenting and believing. Cry out to God for converting grace. . . . Whatever God’s purposes may be, I am sure His promises are true. Whatever the decrees of heaven may be, I am sure if I repent and believe I shall be saved.” Joseph Alleine
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Law and Gospel
American Christianity is dying. Biblical faith and practice of ages past is now being rejected wholesale as not relevant to this generation. This impending death of the evangelical nation is evidenced in many ways. The clearest proof, however, of the decline of Christian faith in America can be found in how God is worshiped and what is being preached in our churches?
These two things actually go together since the way people worship says more about what they really believe about God than any creed they might confess or profession of faith they might have made. But what people believe and how they worship comes from the content of what they hear preached as “gospel.” For many they hear law or gospel. For most it’s the law as gospel. When in fact, what should be preached is law and gospel.
Preaching law or gospel produces legalists or libertines. The “works righteousness” legalists in the long sad line of Pelagius, Erasmus and Arminius are convinced that what God commands them to do they can do. Just give them the Ten Commandments or any other list of things to do to please God and they are set; they know what the goal is and they are confident that with a little help from the grace of God they can get it done. On the contrary, libertines simply use grace as an excuse to sin thereby giving evidence of being unconverted.
When the law is preached as gospel you will find people seeking a better life “in Adam” not necessarily a new life “in Christ.” The law as gospel is marked by good works and obedience to spiritual laws or principles designed to "Change Your Life!" Faith and action based upon these laws releases the power and favor of God into the human condition. This is heralded as “good news” when in fact it’s not the “gospel” at all. When human initiative is the contingency to get God to do what He really wants to do, that He can’t do unless we exercise some spiritual law that lets God be God, its spiritual fraud. There is no gospel in "What would Jesus do?
What the Bible teaches is law and gospel. The loud thunder of the law is seldom preached anymore. The law is “bad news” for the sinner. There is a holy God and by His holy law we are judged sinners, condemned to die, and suffer His judgment. We are “dead in our trespasses and sin” and we can’t do a thing about it. This is really “bad news.” The law either drives us to despair or to Christ who did for us what we could not do and would not do for ourselves. The gospel isn’t a “new and improved” us. The gospel is Christ dying for our sins and being raised again for our justification.
These two things actually go together since the way people worship says more about what they really believe about God than any creed they might confess or profession of faith they might have made. But what people believe and how they worship comes from the content of what they hear preached as “gospel.” For many they hear law or gospel. For most it’s the law as gospel. When in fact, what should be preached is law and gospel.
Preaching law or gospel produces legalists or libertines. The “works righteousness” legalists in the long sad line of Pelagius, Erasmus and Arminius are convinced that what God commands them to do they can do. Just give them the Ten Commandments or any other list of things to do to please God and they are set; they know what the goal is and they are confident that with a little help from the grace of God they can get it done. On the contrary, libertines simply use grace as an excuse to sin thereby giving evidence of being unconverted.
When the law is preached as gospel you will find people seeking a better life “in Adam” not necessarily a new life “in Christ.” The law as gospel is marked by good works and obedience to spiritual laws or principles designed to "Change Your Life!" Faith and action based upon these laws releases the power and favor of God into the human condition. This is heralded as “good news” when in fact it’s not the “gospel” at all. When human initiative is the contingency to get God to do what He really wants to do, that He can’t do unless we exercise some spiritual law that lets God be God, its spiritual fraud. There is no gospel in "What would Jesus do?
What the Bible teaches is law and gospel. The loud thunder of the law is seldom preached anymore. The law is “bad news” for the sinner. There is a holy God and by His holy law we are judged sinners, condemned to die, and suffer His judgment. We are “dead in our trespasses and sin” and we can’t do a thing about it. This is really “bad news.” The law either drives us to despair or to Christ who did for us what we could not do and would not do for ourselves. The gospel isn’t a “new and improved” us. The gospel is Christ dying for our sins and being raised again for our justification.
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