Justice, Mercy, and Grace

By Justin Edwards
 
Justice is getting what you deserve, mercy is not getting what you deserve, and grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

When we are witnessing to the lost, it is oftentimes important to define the terms we are using to communicate the Gospel.  In one conversation last night during our weekly outreach, after one gentleman expressed he must prove that he was deserving of salvation, I quickly asked him what grace is.  He defined it as love, so I proceeded to explain to him what justice, mercy, and grace is as defined by Scripture.  These terms and their meanings seem to largely be lost among today’s society, so let’s briefly take a look at each in hopes they will help you better understand and communicate the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Justice is getting what you deserve.

When we hear of justice today, it’s usually in the form of its antonym, injustice.   We hear of social justice and perceived abuses of justice, but it is rare on the streets when someone can provide a correct definition of justice.  The best way to do this is to figuratively take the individual into the courtroom.

If we break the law, there is a consequence.  For example, if we get a ticket for going 55mph in a 35mph speed zone, the right or just thing for the judge of the court would be to fine us for our violation of the traffic law.  If 20 people showed up in the courtroom that day with traffic violations in the same speed zone, the judge should still fine every person for the violation against the law, regardless of “everybody else was doing it”.  We, individually, are responsible to obey the law, and when we violate the law, we each are responsible to pay the debt owed.  The judge is a good and just judge when he gives us what we deserve.

In the same way, we have all broken God’s law.  We have all lied, stolen, blasphemed God’s holy name, lusted and murdered in our heart, among many other offenses against Him.  Because God is a good and just judge, the Supreme Judge of the universe, He must punish the crimes committed against Him.  If He overlooked our crimes as if they never happened, or merely accepted an apology from us on the day of judgment and let us go free out of His holy courtroom, then He would be corrupt and unjust.  It is because of His goodness that our sin must be punished, and it is why we deserve His justice and death sentence to eternal hell.

See this article for more on the justice of God:  Jesus: Holy and Righteous God of Love and Wrath – Part 3

Mercy is not getting what you deserve.

Mercy is deliverance from the justice we deserve.  The Bible says that God is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4) and saves us not because of anything we have done, but because of His mercy alone (Titus 3:5).  We deserve His justice and His wrath against us in the eternal lake of fire because we have sinned against an infinitely holy God.  Even so, God has chosen according to the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 2:5) to be merciful to some (Romans 9:22-23) to forgive them their debts owed to Him.

It’s important to understand that God does not show mercy at the expense of His justice.  In fact, overlooking these crimes would be a great injustice as mentioned before.  The Bible says that God’s wrath must be satisfied (1 John 4:10), which means every sin, or crime, that has ever been committed against Him by any human that has ever walked the earth, whether thought, word, or deed, must be punished.  That’s why Christ had to die on the cross – to shed His blood to make atonement (to pay the debt) for these sins.  All who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ by repentant faith had their sin transferred to Christ and their crimes were punished through Him.  The very wrath we deserved was poured out on God’s own Son – He bore our iniquities and took our punishment (Isaiah 53).

So though God shows mercy to His sheep, their sins do not go unpunished.  Justice is either served through the shed blood of Christ, or justice is served through the punishment of unrepentant sinners in hell for eternity.  Christ paid a debt He did not owe because we had a debt we could not pay.  Because God’s wrath was satisfied and justice served, His mercy abounds for those He saves.  That is justice and mercy working together.

Grace is getting what you don’t deserve.

The man we spoke with last night believed he had to prove himself worthy of salvation – that is what Catholics and Mormons believe.  Indeed, if we had to work for grace, then it would not be grace at all, it would be merited favor.  The Bible teaches that salvation is absolutely and completely of the Lord (Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 1:6; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31).  Even our faith and repentance are gifts, otherwise they would be works (2 Timothy 2:25; Ephesians 2:1-10).

In the last moments of Christ’s crucifixion, as He hung there in spiritual agony as the result of the weight of sin of the world and God crushing His Son with His full wrath, Jesus said, “It is finished”, and then He gave up His spirit (John 19:30).  Not only was His work to save men from their sins completed, but He affirmed there is nothing left to be done.  No more work, no more sacrifice, nothing at all.  There is nothing any of us can do to add to the finished work of Christ.  It is finished!  The person who believes they have to prove themselves worthy of salvation does not understand the price paid for sin, nor do they understand grace and are still dead in their sins.

We are born spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1), we are blinded by the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), and it is impossible for us as natural men to understand the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14).  We are deserving of God’s justice, but according to His will (John 1:12-13) and the glorious riches of His mercy, He has chosen to deliver His people from His wrath and give them what they don’t deserve.

God’s justice and mercy are hinged upon the cross by His sovereign grace.  He gives us what we can never earn, namely eternal life, while meeting all the requirements to satisfy His justice.  Now that is amazing grace!

This article was originally posted at The Speak:Truth Project

Stories of Change - Christ Redeems!

By Justin Edwards

The one who has been saved by the grace of God through the Lord Jesus Christ experiences a real, tangible, inward change of the heart that leads to a life of sanctification.  Titus 2:12 tells us that grace

train[s] us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. 

We see in Galatians 5:22-23 that God manifests His character in us as we grow in grace:

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

In Colossians 3:5-17, we see a contrast between the old man who was dead in his sins and facing the wrath of God yet to come, with the new man who has become a new creation in Christ to be a slave of His righteousness.  As we are conformed to the likeness of Jesus, the works of the flesh will no longer be manifest in us (see Galatians 5:19-21), and we are in fact commanded to crucify these things in our flesh and walk in newness of life:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

If we are no longer slaves to our sin but slaves to God (Romans 6:22), let us walk in this reality as sons and daughters who want nothing more but to honor our King by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices to Him (Romans 12:1-2).  Paul tells us in the third chapter of Colossians:

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Are these Scriptures a reality in your life?  Are you dwelling in the Word of God that it would dwell in you richly? Is grace teaching you to deny worldliness and ungodliness?  Are you learning to live a godly, self-controlled, righteous life in this present life?  Have the chains of sin been broken that you walk in newness of life, having crucified your flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24)?  

Jesus came to save His people from their sin.  He came to heal the sick.  Do you have yet to be saved, do you have yet to be healed from the disease of sin?  Do you wish to be made free?  The reality is that Jesus 

gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. - Titus 2:14  

Christ redeems and Christ purifies His people.  Do you want to be made pure?

The beauty of grace is not only that it saves us from God's wrath to come, but it saves us from the bondage of our sin.  The Hope of Christ is that we can be freed today, not just in the life to come.  God's grace not only saves us, but it changes us so that we experience the abundant life of Christ now. 

Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. - John 8:34-36

The people in the following video know and remember a time when they were lost and hopeless.  Can you?  Can you identify with their stories?  All Christians can.  If you cannot, let's talk about it.

Jesus Died for Me

By Justin Edwards

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. - 1 Corinthians 1:18

Jesus died for me.  A wretched sinner.  I lived as an enemy of the cross.  I loved the world.  I loved my sin.  Though I loved God with my lips, I hated Him with my lifestyle.  My mind was set on earthly things.  I pursued the riches of this world.  I was proud.  I wanted to control my life.  I wanted to do things my way.  I was a hypocrite.  Compared to others, I was a good person.  Compared to God, I was hopeless.  "Moral values" were my god.  As long as I didn't hurt others, it was ok for me to hurt myself through a reckless lifestyle.  I was a professing Christian.  I trampled on the blood of Christ.  I took pleasure in the sin that nailed Him to the cross.  I was religious.  I was lost.  But Jesus died for me.  For me!

What did I do to receive this greatest act of love where Jesus laid His life down for me?  Nothing, absolutely nothing.  What could I do?  There was nothing good in me.  There was nothing in me that God looked upon me favorably to say, "Ah yes, this one deserves My grace."  No, I did not deserve God's grace.  No one does.  The only thing any of us deserve is His justice and wrath - the due punishment for our crimes against an infinitely holy and righteous God.

There was no amount of effort that could make me deserving of heaven.  There was no amount of good works to outweigh by bad works.  There was no amount of cleaning myself up that would warrant me worthy of salvation.  After all, it was actually impossible for me to clean myself up, and trust me, I tried many times.  The reality was that I was a slave to my sin.  I was in bondage to the works of the flesh, and the reckless and proud lifestyle I lived was merely an outward manifestation of the condition of my heart. And because I was "saved and baptized" when I was 8 years old and was taught "once saved always saved", it really didn't matter what kind of lifestyle I lived because I was forgiven and eternally secure.  Little did I know grace was not a license to sin, nor does a prayer or "decision for Christ" equal salvation.  Even so, my pride caused me to believe God would overlook my sin, even though my lifestyle was an abomination to Him.

So why did God save me 2 years ago?  I can tell you it had nothing to do with me, but everything to do with Him.  A secret only known to God, He chose me before the foundation of the world to lay His life down for me.  While I was dead in my sins and was an enemy of God, He chose to extend His mercy to me.  To bring glory to Himself, and for this reason alone, He chose to give me a new heart so that I could see exactly who I was, and more importantly, I could see Who He is.  I am nowhere in the equation, but solely for His glorious purposes, of which I know not, He chose to make me His son and a co-heir in the Kingdom of Christ.

That is grace, my friend.  There is no other way.

I deserved the punishment, but Christ took my punishment instead.  I deserved the wrath of God, but Christ bore this wrath for me.  Every single sin - whether thought, word, or deed - I deserved to recompense, but Christ paid my debt for me because I could not.  The perfect, spotless, Lamb of Almighty God took my hell, so that I could receive eternal life with Jesus in heaven.

That is love, my friend.  There is none greater.

It is for this reason I am able to love God.  If He had not loved me first, it would be impossible for me to love Him.  If He had not made me a new creation, it would be impossible for me to desire God.  If He had not given me a new heart, it would be impossible for me to serve and obey Him.  And if He had not shone His light through me, it would have been impossible for me to understand the Gospel.

But none of these things make any sense to those with hardened hearts.  As the Scripture at the top of this post indicates, the cross is utter foolishness to those who are perishing.  They think it folly that anyone can pay for their sin except for themselves.  They mock the blood of Christ and consider it disgusting to be covered by such a thing.  The god of this world, Satan, has blinded them so they cannot see the truth that is in the Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4), and in their natural state as children of wrath,

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. - 1 Corinthians 2:14

But when God saves sinners by His grace alone, He gives us eyes to see and a mind to discern the things of God.  Because of this, we are able to respond to Christ with a hunger and thirst for righteousness, and God enables us to pursue Him with a passion to love Him with all of our mind, heart, soul, and strength.  This causes us to depart from iniquity (2 Timothy 2:19), deny worldliness and ungodliness (Titus 2:12), to flee from idolatry and sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 10:14; 6:18), and to come out from under the influence of the world (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

Believers understand just how costly it was for Christ to lay His life down for His sheep.  Jesus paid our fine so we would not receive our just and eternal punishment in hell, and for that we are eternally grateful.  It is now our reasonable service to offer our bodies to Him as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to Him (Romans 12:1).  Out of love for Him and love for His beautiful yet gut-wrenching sacrifice, we have no greater desire than to obey Him and flee from the things that crucified Him.  We are compelled to lay our lives down for Christ because we have been the benefactors of the riches of His grace and mercy. 

Christ is our Savior.  Christ is our Lord.  Christ is our King.  And me, a wretched sinner, He laid His life down.

Christ died for me.  Did He die for you?

Are You Preaching the Gospel?

Martin Lloyd-Jones On Preaching the Gospel:

If it is true that where sin abounded grace has much more abounded, well then, “shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound yet further?"

First of all, let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel. Let me show you what I mean.

If a man preaches justification by works, no one would ever raise this question. If a man’s preaching is, “If you want to be Christians, and if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins, you must take up good works, and if you do so regularly and constantly, and do not fail to keep on at it, you will make yourselves. So that misunderstanding could never arise . . . . . .

Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome, but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther; indeed that was precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of Martin Luther. They said, “This man who was a priest has changed the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust, and so on. This man, they said, “is an antinomian; and that is heresy. That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also brought George Whitfield two hundred years ago. It is the charge that formal dead Christianity if there is such a thing has always brought against this startling, staggering message, that God justifies the ungodly . . .

That is my comment and it is a very important comment for preachers. I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.

(HT: Adrian Warnock This is from Lloyd-Jones commentary on Romans 6, pp 8-9, and was quoted by Chuck Swindoll in his book The Grace Awakening, pp. 39-40.)

Do You Know the Gospel?

By Justin Edwards

If you are unclear as to what exactly the Gospel is, please watch this proclamation by Tony Miano and post a comment with any questions or comments.

People Who WILL NOT Go to Heaven

By Justin Edwards

For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. - 1 Thessalonians 4:7-8

As pointed out in Dear "Carnal Christian", the visible church is overburdened with professing Christians who have never been truly converted. What I mean by "visible church" is that there is a distinction between the professing church and the true Church. The professing church, or visible church, is comprised of both genuine believers and mere professing believers who are still dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1). On the other hand, the invisible church, or Body of Christ or true Church, is exclusively comprised of born again saints who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So how do we distinguish between a true believer and a false convert? One simple test can be found in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (which reflects Galatians 5:19-21 and Ephesians 5:3-5). From the text:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Do not be deceived, dear professing Christian. The mark of a true convert is that their life is no longer representative of these sins. Galatians 5:19 indicates these things are manifest (evident) as a lifestyle for those who are still walking in darkness, i.e. those who are not saved. Let's take a closer look in defining these terms:

Fornicator - one who participates in unlawful sex, which is to say of one who indulges in sexual activity outside of the boundaries of legal marriage. It can also mean giving oneself over to false gods, eg religious idolatry. Referring to sexual acts, these would include premarital or post-marital (divorcees) sex of any form (heterosexual, homosexual, incest, pedophilia), but also to include adultery.

Adulterer - one who engages in inappropriate behavior or unlawful sexual activity in violation of legal marriage vows. Such would be the case for two married individuals engaging in inappropriate conduct, or a single individual violating the boundaries of marriage with a married individual.

Idolater - one who worships a false god, or has created a god in their own image (which is to say the "Christian" god they worship is not the God of the Bible). This might include worshiping a god from any of the worlds religions, worship of a person, or worship of an object, such as money.

Homosexual - one who engages in homosexual activity, or same-sex intercourse. This would include those in same-sex relationships, celibate or not.

Sodomite - one who offers himself as a male prostitute to engage in homosexual activity.

Thief - one who steals. Forms of thievery would include embezzlement, robbery (violent force), or by non-violent means, such as cheating, downloading illegal music, or shoplifting.

Covetous - one who is greedy to gain material wealth, or one who is not content or satisfied with their belongings and envies the possessions of others.

Drunkards - one who gets drunk or intoxicated with alcohol.

Revilers - one who is a blasphemer or is marked by contemptuous, disrespectful, or disdainful speech.

Extortioner - one who blackmails for profit, or unlawfully obtains wealth or information through coercion.

The message is clear: those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:21). Yet, the visible church is so polluted today that sins such as drunkenness and fornication are swept under the rug and widely accepted by the vast majority of professing Christians. The same could be said for the other sins with regards to church acceptance, homosexuality for instance, but I want to focus on drunkards and fornicators because I used to be both while professing Christ as my Savior.

A Message for Carnal Christians

This message is for the professing Christian living a worldly lifestyle.

I want to be very frank, not only because what I am about to say is the truth, but because the hour is urgent. The world is falling apart all the more each day and the signs are screaming that Christ is returning any moment for His church. Not only that, but you are not promised to live another second, so I want you to give strict attention to my words as if it's the last time you will ever have the opportunity to hear them.

If your lifestyle reflects one of sexual immorality or drunkenness, then you will not inherit the Kingdom of God. To be more clear, you will perish in hell for all of eternity. Forever. If you think 1 second is small in comparison to 1 trillion years, that one second is infinitely greater than 1 trillion years compared to eternity. Though you profess to believe in Christ, though you believe you are saved, all biblical indicators give evidence you are not (Philippians 3:18-19), and you may wake up one day in hell to your surprise.

Perhaps you live with your boyfriend or girlfriend? That in itself gives the appearance of evil, but woe unto you all the more if you are sleeping with them. Maybe you don't live with your partner, but rather engage in sex whenever it's convenient. The Bible could not be more clear - anyone who habitually practices sex outside of marriage will suffer the wrath of God for eternity.

Perhaps you continue to party at the club scene? Or you like it low key at the bar or night lounge? Or maybe you revel at the beach or lake party? How about the football or concert tailgates? Or maybe you indulge yourself in the privacy of your own home. It's all the same - drunkards will not inherit the Kingdom of God!

You can make all the excuses you want. You can justify your sin a million different ways. But God sees what you are doing and He considers you in violation to His holiness. If you partake in these things while professing to be a Christian, you are trampling the blood of Christ under your feet and are using the grace of God as a license to sin. You perhaps think if you do enough good, if you pray enough to say you're sorry, if you go to church every Sunday, if you pay your tithes - you can somehow balance out your offenses against God. Unfortunately for you, God sees you as an idolater. And unless you repent from this idolatry, you will suffer the wrath of God forever (Romans 2:5).

This is what God requires from you - a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). He does not want your sacrifices of religiosity or guilt produced from worldly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10). No, He requires you to be broken and mournful of your sins against Him. He requires you to forsake it all for Him, never looking back. As long as you continue to hold on to your idol, whether it is sex or alcohol, you cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:33).

Do not confuse these words to mean you must clean yourself up before you come to God. You never will because you can never change on your own. What you must do is come to Him now. Recognize yourself as dead in your sins and apart from the grace of God you will remain there. Throw yourself at the foot of the cross and cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ to save you! Trust in Him alone and surrender to His rule and reign over your life. Give up on yourself, give up your control, give up your own will, cast your sin before Him, and give it all, your very life, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He will accept nothing less than unrivaled allegiance. He demands it.

By the grace of God I realized this nearly two years ago. God showed me how desperately I needed Him because I had so violated His holiness through my own idolatry. He showed me in His Word that my life as a professing Christian did not match up to the biblical definition of Christian. He then broke me, and I conceded to His lordship. I acknowledged His rightful authority over my life, and yielded myself to be His servant.

What will you do now? This could possibly be your last warning. Once your conscience is seared, it will be too late. The longer you run from this message and refuse to heed to God's mercy, the more difficult it will be for you to respond to His grace. These are the last days, my friend. Stop playing games with your eternity. The world is not worth it, nor is the temporary fulfillment of your sinful lifestyle. Run to Christ and never look back. Surrender to the One who was nailed to the bloody cross and who reigns at the right hand of God today. Is He not worthy? Does He not deserve your unwavering devotion? Does He not deserve your love, which is evidenced by obeying what He teaches?

Run to Him!

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. - 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

To learn more about testing your faith, please see this series: Biblical Assurance of Salvation

The Letter Kills but the Spirit Gives Life

By Mike Ratliff

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:25-29 ESV)

I often receive requests from dear brethren who are desperate for assurance, but as I attempt to “dig into” their spiritual background, so to speak, those with the most dire sense of of that desperation also seem to be mired in a works righteousness type of understanding of salvation. It’s not their fault and we cannot help them if we approach the solution from that angle. Whenever I get a request like this, and they are all different, I think of Luther. He was a monk who was desperate to be right with God, but no matter how hard he worked at being righteous, he was continually confessing his sins to his confessor. It was only as God opened his heart to the wonderful truth of justification by faith alone as he studied the book of Romans that Sola Fide became a reality in his heart and so the spark of the Protestant Reformation was ignited.

Before we go any further let’s be sure to make it clear that there is nothing wrong with God’s Law.

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:7-12 ESV)

The problem with the Law is that it is a teacher, but not a Saviour. I have never made it a secret that one of my heros of the faith is William Tyndale. In all of his writings around and about the Word of God, he never failed to link the Law of God and the Gospel. It is the Law that shows the sinner their need of a Saviour. It is the work of the Holy Spirit that does this. This is why it is so tragic that the post-modern infected church in our time is so afraid to offend anyone so it leaves out the Law and just preaches grace. It is an incomplete Gospel my brethren that does not save.

Ministers of the Gospel are just that, they preach the Gospel of life. They do not stop at the Law, but that does not mean they do not preach it.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:4-6 ESV)

Πεποίθησιν δὲ τοιαύτην ἔχομεν διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν. οὐχ ὅτι ἱκανοί ἐσμεν ἀφ᾿ ἑαυτῶν λογίσασθαί τι ὡς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ ἱκανότης ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὃς καὶ ἱκάνωσεν ἡμᾶς διακόνους καινῆς διαθήκης, οὐ γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος· τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτέννει, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζῳοποιεῖ.

Persuasion but such we have through the Christ to the God. Not that from ourselves enough we are to reason some as from ourselves, but the sufficiency of us from the God, who also made competent us servants of new agreement, not of letter but of spirit; the for letter kills, the but spirit makes alive. (word-for-word translation of 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 from Koine Greek to English)

This passage is rich in meaning and we could spend great deal of time on the various parts of it, but I want to concentrate on the last part of v6, which says, “οὐ γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος· τὸ γὰρ γράμμα ἀποκτέννει, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ζῳοποιεῖ” or not of letter but of spirit; the for letter kills, the but spirit makes alive.

What is it that kills or ἀποκτέννει? In this passage, Paul says that γράμμα ἀποκτέννει or the letter kills. However, if we go back and look at Romans 7:7-12 (above) we see that Paul was saying that the Law (the letter) is not what is the cause of the killing, but it was sin becoming alive when the Law revealed it in him that brought death. Therefore, the letter does, in a sense kill, but it is doing what is supposed to do when it does that. That is why we then follow up the exposition of the fact of all of us being hopelessly depraved sinners who cannot save ourselves in desperate need of a Saviour with the Good News of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ζῳοποιεῖ because of the work of the Holy Spirit through the preaching of both the Law and the Gospel.

Are you in Christ? Are you alive in Christ? Has the letter of God’s Law brought you to the point of death that you saw your desperate need for a Saviour? Have you heard the Good News? Have you believed that our Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross to save sinners and all who believe this to be true and turn in repentance from their wicked self-focused life by faith to Him for Salvation, trusting in Him alone, will be saved? (Ephesians 2:1-10)

Soli Deo Gloria!

(HT: Possessing the Treasure)

Growth in Grace

When I speak of growth in grace, I do not for a moment mean that a believer’s interest in Christ can grow. I do not mean that he can grow in safety, acceptance with God, or security. I do not mean that he can ever be more justified, more pardoned, more forgiven, more at peace with God than he is the first moment that he believes. I hold firmly that the justification of a believer is a finished, perfect, and complete work and that the weakest saint (though he may not know and feel it) is as completely justified as the strongest. I hold firmly that our election, calling, and standing in Christ admit of no degrees, increase, or diminution. If any one dreams that by growth in grace I mean growth in justification, he is utterly mistaken about the whole point I am considering. I would go to the stake (God helping me) for the glorious truth that, in the matter of justification before God, every believer is complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10). Nothing can be added to his justification from the moment he believes and nothing taken away.

When I speak of growth in grace, I only mean increase in the degree, size, strength, vigour, and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in a believer’s heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life. When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this: that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked. He feels more of the power of godliness in his own heart; he manifests more of it in his life; he is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith, and from grace to grace. I leave it to others to describe such a man’s condition by any words they please. For myself, I think the truest and best account of him is this: he is growing in grace.

By J. C. Ryle

(HT: New Reformation Ministries)

Jesus Christ Is Everything, or He Is Nothing

By Justin Edwards

 

 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. - Jesus in Revelation 3:15-16

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,  looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,  who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. - Titus 2:11-14

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,  and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all. - Colossians 3:1-11

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple...whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple. - Jesus in Luke 14:26-33

Invitation to Pray

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. (Jeremiah 33:3) 

God encourages us to pray. They tell us that prayer is a pious exercise which has no influence except upon the mind engaged in it. We know better. Our experience gives the lie a thousand times over to this infidel assertion. Here Jehovah, the living God, distinctly promises to answer the prayer of His servant. Let us call upon Him again and admit no doubt upon the question of His hearing us and answering us. He that made the ear, shall He not hear? He that gave parents a love to their children, will He not listen to the cries of His own sons and daughters!

God will answer His pleading people in their anguish. He has wonders in store for them. What they have never seen, heard of, or dreamed of, He will do for them. He will invent new blessings if needful. He will ransack sea and land to feed them: He will send every angel out of heaven to succor them if their distress requires it. He will astound us with His grace and make us feel that it was never before done in this fashion. All He asks of us is that we will call upon Him. He cannot ask less of us. Let us cheerfully render Him our prayers at once. - Charles Spurgeon

(HT: The Spurgeon Archive)

We Never Outgrow Our Need for the Gospel

From Tullian Tchividjian’s new book, Surprised by Grace: God’s Relentless Pursuit of Rebels


I once assumed the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, but after they believe it, they advance to deeper theological waters. Jonah helped me realize that the gospel isn’t the first step in a stairway of truths but more like the hub in a wheel of truth. As Tim Keller explains it, the gospel isn’t simply the ABCs of Christianity, but the A-through-Z. The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christians going every day. Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they’re converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. Since we never leave off sinning, we can never leave the gospel.

This idea that the gospel is just as much for Christians as for non-Christians may seem like a new idea to many, but, in fact, it is really a very old idea. In his letter to the Christians of Colossae, the apostle Paul quickly portrays the gospel as the instrument of all continued growth and spiritual progress for believers after conversion: “All over the world,” he writes, “this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth” (Col. 1:6 NIV).

After meditating on Paul’s words here, a friend once told me that all our problems in life stem from our failure to apply the gospel. This means we can’t really move forward unless we learn more thoroughly the gospel’s content and how to apply it to all of life. Real change does not and cannot come independently of the gospel, which is the good news that even though we’re more defective and lost than we ever imagined, we can be more accepted and loved than we ever dared hope, because Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again for sinners like you and me. God intends this reality to mold and shape us at every point in every way. It should define the way we think, feel, and live.

Martin Luther often employed the phrase simul Justus et peccator to describe his condition as a Christian. It means “simultaneously justified and sinful.” He understood that while he’d already been saved (through justification) from sin’s penalty, he was in daily need of salvation from sin’s power. And since the gospel is the “power of God for salvation” (Rom. 1:16), he knew that even for the most saintly of saints the gospel is wholly relevant and vitally necessary—day in and day out. This means that heralded preachers need the gospel just as much as hardened pagans. (16-17)

(HT: Peter Cockrell)

Are Christians Meant to Feel Guilty All the Time?

By Kevin DeYoung

I imagine there are plenty of Christians who rarely feel the sting of conscience or the pangs of regret. But I also know many, many Christians (including the one I see in the mirror) who easily feel bad for all the things they are not doing or are doing less than perfectly. In fact, I’m convinced most serious Christians live their lives with an almost constant low-level sense of guilt.

How do we feel guilty? Let me count the ways.

• We could pray more.
• We aren’t bold enough in evangelism.
• We like sports too much.
• We watch movies and television too often.
• Our quiet times are too short or too sporadic.
• We don’t give enough.
• We bought a new couch.
• We don’t read to our kids enough.
• Our kids eat Cheetos and french fries.
• We don’t recycle enough.
• We need to lost 20 pounds.
• We could use our time better.
• We could live some place harder or in something smaller.

What do we do with all this behind the scenes guilt? We don’t feel stop-dead-in-our-tracks kind of remorse for these things.  But these shortcomings can have a cumulative effect whereby even the mature Christian can feel like he’s rather disappointing to God, maybe just barely Christian.

Here’s the tricky part: we should feel guilty sometimes, because sometimes we are guilty of sin. Moreover, complacency as Christians is a real danger, especially in America.

But yet, I don’t believe God redeemed us through the blood of his Son that we might feel like constant failures. Do Peter and John post-Pentecost seemed racked with self-loathing and introspective fear? Does Paul seem constantly concerned that he could be doing more? Amazingly enough, Paul actually says at one point “I am not aware of anything against myself” (1 Cor. 4:4). He’s quick to add, “I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.” But it sure seems like Paul put his head on the pillow at night with a clean conscience. So why do so many Christian feel guilty all the time?

1. We don’t fully embrace the good news of the gospel. We forget that we have been made alive together with Christ. We have been raised with him. We have been saved through faith alone. And this is the gift of God, not a result of works (Eph. 2:4-8). We can be so scared of antinomianism, which is a legitimate danger, that we are afraid to speak too lavishly of God’s grace. But if we’ve never been charged with being antinomian, we probably haven’t presented the gospel in all it’s scandalous glory (Rom. 6:1).

2. Christians tend to motivate each other by guilt rather than grace. Instead of urging our fellow believers to be who they are in Christ, we command them to do more for Christ (see Rom. 6:5-14 for the proper motivation). So we see Christlikeness as something we are royally screwing up, when we should it as something we already possess but need to grow into.

3. Most of our low-level guilt falls under the ambiguous category of “not doing enough.” Look at the list above. None one of the items are necessarily sinful. They all deal with possible infractions, perceptions, and ways in which we’d like to do more. These are the hardest areas to deal with because no Christian, for example, will ever confess to praying enough. So it is always easy to feel terrible about prayer (or evangelism or giving or any number of disciplines). We must be careful that we don’t insist on a certain standard of practice when the Bible merely insists on a general principle.

Let me give another example. Every Christian must give generously and contribute to the needs of the saints (2 Cor. 9:6-11; Rom. 12:13). This we can insist on with absolute certainty. But what this generosity looks like–how much we give, how much we retain–is not bound by any formula, nor can it be exacted by compulsion (2 Cor. 9:7). So if we want people to be more generous we would do well to follow Paul’s example in 2 Corinthians and emphasize the blessings of generosity and the gospel rooted motivation for generosity as opposed to shaming those who don’t give us much.

4. When we are truly guilty of sin it is imperative we repent and receive God’s mercy. Paul had a clean conscience, not because he never sinned, but, I imagine, because he quickly went to the Lord when he knew he was wrong and rested in the “no condemnation” of the gospel (Rom. 8:1). If we confess our sins, John says, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). We aren’t meant to feel borderline miserable all the time. We are meant to live in the joy of our salvation. So when we sin–and we’ll all sin (1 Kings 8:46; 1 John 1:8)–we confess it, get cleansed, and move on.

This underlines one of the great dangers with constant guilt: we learn to ignore our consciences. If we are truly sinning, we need to repent and implore the Lord to help us change. But if we aren’t sinning, if we are perhaps not as mature as we could be, or are not as disciplined as some believers, or we are making different choices that may be acceptable but not extraordinary, then we should not be made to feel guilty. Challenged, stirred, inspired, but not guilty.

As a pastor this means I don’t expect that everyone in my congregation should feel awful about everything I ever preach on. It is ok, after all, for people to actually be obedient to God’s commands. Not perfectly, not without some mixed motives, not as fully as they could be, but still faithfully, God-pleasingly obedient. Faithful preaching does not require that sincere Christians feel miserable all the time. In fact, the best preaching ought to make sincere Christians see more of Christ and experience more of his grace.

Deeper grace will produce better gratitude, which means less guilt. And that’ s a good thing all the way around.

(HT: Peter Cockrell)

No Fear of Death

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. (Revelation 2:11)

The first death we must endure unless the Lord should suddenly come to His temple. For this let us abide in readiness, awaiting it without fear, since Jesus has transformed death from a dreary cavern into a passage leading to glory.

The thing to be feared is not the first but the second death, not the parting of the soul from the body but the final separation of the entire man from God. This is death indeed. This death kills all peace, joy, happiness, hope. When God is gone, all is gone. Such a death is far worse than ceasing to be: it is existence without the life which makes existence worth the having.

Now, if by God's grace we fight on to the end and conquer in the glorious war, no second death can lay its chill finger upon us, We shall have no fear of death and hell, for we shall receive a crown of life which fadeth not away. How this nerves us for the fight! Eternal life is worth a life's battle. To escape the hurt of the second death is a thing worth struggling for throughout a lifetime.

Lord, give us faith so that we may overcome, and then grant us grace to remain unharmed though sin and Satan dog our heels!

- C.H. Spurgeon

From the Spurgeon Archive

He Remembers No More

By C.H. Spurgeon

For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:34)

When we know the Lord, we receive the forgiveness of sins. We know Him as the God of grace, passing by our transgressions. What a joyful discovery is this!

But how divinely is this promise worded: the Lord promises no more to remember our sins! Can God forget? He says He will, and He means what He says. He will regard us as though we had never sinned. The great atonement so effectually removed all sin that it is to the mind of God no more in existence. The believer is now in Christ Jesus, as accepted as Adam in his innocence; yea, more so, for he wears a divine righteousness, and that of Adam was but human.

The great Lord will not remember our sins so as to punish them, or so as to love us one atom the less because of them. As a debt when paid ceases to be a debt, even so doth the Lord make a complete obliteration of the iniquity of His people.

When we are mourning over our transgressions and shortcomings, and this is our duty as long as we live, let us at the same time rejoice that they will never be mentioned against us. This makes us hate sin. God's free pardon makes us anxious never again to grieve Him by disobedience.