Our Only Method

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

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.

God Gives What He Commands

To whom do you answer? To what are you a slave? What fruit is being produced in your life? We are constantly being told to do better, be better, and do more. There is a temptation to move from the things that God has done in Christ to the things we are to do because of Christ and assume it’s now our turn. Yet, in the same way that we needed another to fulfill the law and die in our place, on our behalf, so Christ remains the source on which we rely as the Holy Spirit initially and progressively conforms us to God. There are gospel imperatives to do and not do certain things. Nevertheless, we cannot forget that we are not able apart from the Spirit of Christ to do what God commands.

“This first thing to remember, of course, is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual ... but from the New Testament's point of view, those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only where our piety forgets about ourself and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety be nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.” Sinclair Ferguson

Whatever God requires it is Christ who meets the requirement. Whatever duty is owed it is Christ who dutifully obeys. Whatever price that needs to be paid it is Christ who has paid it. And we are “in Christ” by the work of the Holy Spirit who effectually calls us, gives us saving faith, leads us to godly repentance, justifies us by Christ’s imputed righteousness, and sanctifies us for good works, until heaven is our home and sin is no more.

“Prone to wander Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love: here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Robert Robinson

For Whom Did Christ Die?

I truly believe that the essential doctrines of the Reformed faith cannot be refuted only disbelieved. Often the pastoral doctrines of grace come to mind as a point of contention and particularly the doctrine of election.

I once had a man who had spent many weeks studying with me about the electing grace of God. At the end of our time together he said, "I cannot disprove what you believe, but I will not believe it!"

If you haven't read the following logical syllogism of the brilliant John Owen read it again and rejoice with me of God's amazing grace.

FOR WHOM DID CHRIST DIE?

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent
punishment for, either:

1. All the sins of all men.
2. All the sins of some men, or
3. Some of the sins of all men.

In which case it may be said:

1. That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so, none are saved.
2. That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.
3. But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, "Because of unbelief."

I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!"