“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Is your heart pressed down even to despondency, under the guilt of sin, so that you cry, How an such a sinner as I be pardoned? My sin is greater than can be forgiven. “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Remember that no sin can stand before the efficacy of His blood. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanest from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 This sacrifice makes full satisfaction to God. Bless be God for Jesus Christ.
- John Flavel from The Fountain of Life
God’s love is unconditional for those He intends to adopt as His children. He does not make us meet a condition (faith) before He will love us, as the Arminian affirms. Rather, He meets the condition for us in Christ by doing for us what we are unable to do for ourselves, that is, giving us everything we need for salvation, including a new heart to believe. (Ezek 36:26). - John Hendryx
When once the fiery law of God
Has chas’d me to the gospel-road;
Then back unto the holy law
Most kindly gospel-grace will draw.
The law most perfect still remains,
And ev’ry duty full contains:
The Gospel its perfection speaks,
And therefore give whate’er it seeks.
A rigid master was the law,
Demanding brick, denying straw;
But when with gospel-tongue it sings,
It bids me fly, and gives me wings.
- Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)
“Contrary to popular belief, Christianity is not a form of slavery; it is a kind of sonship. Without Jesus Christ, human beings are captivated by sin an enslaved by the rules of primitive religion. But when they come to Christ, they are released from their bondage to become the sons and daughters of God.
From slavery to sonship – this is the message of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. It is the the transition the Tuyuca people made when they first encountered that message. The Tuyucas live in the eastern jungles of Colombia, along the border with Brazil. As they worked with the missionary Janet Barnes to translate Galatians, they had trouble understanding salvation by grace. “If all we have to do to be saved is believe,” one of them asked, “well, then what? How do we live after that?”
The answer, the Tuyucans learned, is that Christians live out their faith by obeying the will of God. They do this not because they are slaves who must satisfy their Master, but because they are children who want to please their Father. “I understand now,” said one of the Tuyucans, finally grasping the gospel message of Galatians. “My grandfather said it is better for a son to obey his father out of love that out of fear of being punished. That is how God wants us to obey Him – out of love.”
- Phillip Graham-Ryken from his commentary on Galatians
The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines. —Samuel Rutherford
God takes a safe course with His children, that they may not be condemned with the world, He permits the world to condemn them, that they may not love the world, the world hates them…. —Richard Sibbes
It is the great support and solace of the saints in all the distresses that befall them here, that there is a wise Spirit sitting in all the wheels of motion, and governing the most eccentric creatures and their most pernicious designs to blessed and happy issues. —John Flavel
The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore. Psalm 93 (ESV)
A sin that I seem to struggle with daily is the sin of fear and anxiety. Whether it be of the unknown or even over my own sin, anxiety and fear often rears its ugly head. I need not forget also that Satan loves to evoke fear and anxiety in the lives of believers. I also need to remember that fear and anxiety is sin because at its core it is raw unbelief. Preaching to myself the grand truths of Scripture and the sovereignty of God in all things bring true comfort based on truth. This hymn always brings me comfort and if you also struggle with anxiety I pray it also brings you comfort as you reflect on the Biblical truths it paints in music…
Whate’er my God ordains is right: His holy will abideth; I will be still whate’er He doth; And follow where He guideth; He is my God; though dark my road, He holds me that I shall not fall: Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
Whate’er my God ordains is right: He never will deceive me; He leads me by the proper path: I know He will not leave me. I take, content, what He hath sent; His hand can turn my griefs away, And patiently I wait His day.
Whate’er my God ordains is right: His loving thought attends me; No poison can be in the cup That my physician sends me. My God is true; each morn anew I’ll trust His grace unending, My life to Him commending.
Whate’er my God ordains is right: He is my friend and Father; He suffers naught to do me harm, Though many storms may gather, Now I may know both joy and woe, Some day I shall see clearly That He hath loved me dearly.
Whate’er my God ordains is right: Though now this cup, in drinking, May bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it, all unshrinking. My God is true; each morn anew Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, And pain and sorrow shall depart.
Whate’er my God ordains is right: Here shall my stand be taken; Though sorrow, need, or death be mine, Yet I am not forsaken. My Father’s care is round me there; He holds me that I shall not fall: And so to Him I leave it all.
Samuel Rodigast, 1676
You can listen to a great version by Indelible Grace here.
If I were to ask you to name the first account of killing in Scripture you would most likely point back to the early Genesis account of Cain and Abel. In that scene, Cain invites Abel to join him in the field and then takes his life. It’s definitely a chilling account of the children of Satan and their enmity and hatred towards God’s people.
However, Cain is not the answer to the question of the first killer in Scripture. Incredibly enough, the first killer in Scripture is God. Let’s back up to the Fall of man in Genesis 3. Satan tempted Eve to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam also took of it. This single act of disobedience and outright sin caused all of mankind and all of creation for that matter to be under a curse. One thing to note is that right after Adam and Eve sinned they tried to cover their shame themselves using fig leaves. If we really look carefully at this, we see that Adam and Eve were truly the first legalists. They attempted to cover themselves with man-made righteousness. They planned to cover their shame and guilt themselves which never works. Sadly, many today believe that they will be able to stand before God because of their own works or their own merit. Many mistakingly believe that if they go to church, feed the poor, sing in the choir or just believe that God exists they will be forgiven and a ticket will be waiting for them to heaven. Scripture teaches the opposite!
Recall that Adam and Eve hid from God because they realized their sin and shame. God then curses Satan and banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden signifying that because of their sin they are now not only out of fellowship with God but now at war with Him. (Romans 5:10) That is mankind’s greatest problem. It’s not sickness. It’s not cancer or even poverty. Mankind’s greatest problem is God. God has a righteous and pure anger against sinful man because we have all broken His law. And since He is the author of that law, we have ultimately sinned against Him. As R.C. Sproul so eloquently puts it, “we have committed cosmic treason.” I’ve heard quite a bit from people that say God hates the sin but loves the sinner. There is great truth that God extends His love to those who will by faith embrace His Son for salvation but make note that God sends sinners to hell, not sin. Because of our sin we are born at enmity with God and God is at war with us. Make no mistake, we desperately need to be reconciled to God and there is only one way for that to happen and it’s gloriously illustrated in the end of the third chapter of Genesis.
But there is great hope and that hope is only found in what God Himself provides. Remember that Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their sin and shame. In essence, they did what so many today do in trying to cover themselves with their own works and self-righteousness. They believe that there is something they can do themselves to stand before God. Long before Cain killed Abel, we have a magnificent scene where God kills. Before banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden and setting up cheribum to block the way, God takes an innocent animal and slays it. He takes the skins of that animal and covers Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:21) Our sin demands death. It demands the shedding of blood. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would surely die. Something did die that day. In their stead it was an innocent animal. This scene gloriously points to Christ – the Lamb of God who was slain for the world.
Adam and Eve needed a righteousness outside of themselves since after the Fall they had absolutely no righteousness of their own. They needed an “alien” righteousness. God striking that animal and clothing Adam and Eve with its skin points us to our only hope. It points us to the perfect life and death of Christ. We not only need to have our sin’s penalty dealt with and God’s wrath satisfied but we also need perfect righteousness credited to us to stand before God. We need nothing less than God’s righteousness. This is exactly what Paul sums up in 2 Corinthians 5:21 when he writes one of the most magnificent verses in Scripture. It reads, “He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we may have the righteousness of God in Him.” God made Christ who was perfectly sinless to take on our sin through imputation so that God’s righteousness and justice would be met on the cross. Through repentance and faith in Christ we have Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to us. It’s the glorious double imputation that should cause us to shout for joy at the wisdom of God. My sin imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness imputed to me. The great transaction!
The death of the innocent animal in Genesis chapter three and all the animal sacrifices throughout the Old Testament, and ultimately the death of Christ on that cross should open our eyes to the sinfulness of sin and the fact that God hates sin and must punish sinners. Our sin demands death. Only in Christ is forgiveness found. He is it. It’s not Christ plus works or Christ plus anything. In fact, the true equation is that Christ plus anything equals absolutely nothing. Solus Christus – Christ alone!
Marvel at the love and justice of God displayed at the cross of Christ. Marvel that the only way to be saved from the penalty of our sin is to be in Christ by faith and dressed in the righteousness that only God can give. It pleased God to crush His Son. (Isaiah 53) I believe it pleased Him because it brought ultimate glory to Him by demonstrating to the world His love, mercy, grace, justice, wrath and hatred toward sin at the same time. In ways our finite minds will never be able to fully comprehend, the cross of Christ demonstrates God’s love and His wrath at the exact same time. Thanks be to God for the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Solus Christus!
We might well pray for God to invade and conquer us, for until He does, we remain in peril from a thousand foes. We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration. The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.
A. W. Tozer (HT: A Voice Crying Out)
“I know that if I just ask God for forgiveness, He will forgive me.” This is one of the most common responses I get when sharing the gospel with unbelievers. Shockingly, the response above is most often given by those who claim to be believers. Sadly, this demonstrates a very sad state of the American church. It would be different if I lived in an area of the United States that was more liberal and not as churched, but I live in the heart of the south – in the Bible belt where there is literally a church on every corner. (In some places there are several churches on a single corner!) We’ve become a church culture so gospel-less that the average person who attends church cannot articulate the gospel.
What alarms me is that the average church-goer believes that they are heaven-bound because 1) they attend church and have been baptized or 2) they have asked God to forgive them. I want to focus on the second response since this is one that I hear most often.
One way I like to share the gospel is to turn it around and get people to share it with me. I’ll tell them that I have lived a horrible life and I have three minutes to live and desire to go to heaven. I’ll ask them to tell me how I can be forgiven and go to heaven. What I most often get is a simple, “just ask God to forgive you and He will.” I’ll ask, “is that all I have to do?” They respond, “yep!”
This is where there is an inadequate understanding of God and how he is revealed in Scripture. God is a forgiving God. The Bible tells us He is. But the Bible also clearly tells us that God is also just and He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. He is a just Judge and must deal with sin. If he just forgave us of our sins without dealing with our sins then He would be unjust and frankly would not be good. He would be a bad judge. One of the greatest questions that fallen humanity must ask is, “how can God be just and the justifier of the wicked?” This truly is the ultimate question. I believe it was Horatius Bonar in his excellent work The Everlasting Righteousness who began his treatise on justification by asking that very question.
So, this causes a dilemma. If we really begin to delve into God forgiving sinners we really must ask how can He justly forgive sinners without there being a penalty paid for the sin? How can God be just and justify guilty sinners? In fact, I believe it was Paul Washer in one of his excellent sermons on the gospel who used Proverbs 17:15 to setup “the gospel dilemma”. This verse teaches us that it is an abomination to God if the wicked are justified and the righteous are condemned. So then, based on this verse if an unbeliever were to simply ask God to forgive him and God did, then He would be going against His own word and would be an abomination in His own eyes.
Here is where the gospel shines with all its glorious splendor. God can and does forgive sinners but only if our sin is dealt with and His justice is satisfied. It is impossible for us to do anything to satisfy that debt since we are already sinners and even our most contrite and heartfelt sorrow is in itself tainted with sin. The only solution is for someone who is without sin to stand in our place. What we need is a great transaction. This is exactly what Christ did for us. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is in my opinion one of the most glorious verses in all of Scripture. It tells us that God made Christ who was perfect and sinless to become our sin so that we would have the righteousness of God in Him. Christ is the answer to how God can be just and the justifier of sinners. God imputed all the sins of the elect on Christ on the cross (allowing Christ Himself to remain perfectly sinless) and poured out all the wrath on Christ in our stead. This way, God is just and has dealt with our sin. No created thing will ever be able to point the finger at God and accuse Him of being unjust in saving His elect. The other side of this amazing transaction is that through repentance and faith, Christ’s perfect righteousness is imputed to us. When God looks on believers He sees the perfect, spotless righteousness of His Son.
So, God does forgive sin but only through the vicarious, penal, substitutionary death of His Son. No amount of tears or begging for forgiveness will work outside of faith in Christ. Think about it this way. If God just forgave everyone who asked, then Christ died needlessly. If God could just sweep our sin under the “celestial rug” and not deal with it taking only our plea for forgiveness then Christ’s death was pointless. The cross demonstrates to us not only the love of God but also His justice.
One last point. It’s is inevitable that when sharing the gospel that unbelievers will quote 1 John 1:8-9. They will use this verse to “prove” that all they have to do is ask God for forgiveness and He will forgive. There is a problem though. This verse is not written to unbelievers. It applies only to believers in Christ Jesus. There is a very important little four letter word in this verse that is essential to our understanding of the gospel. That little word is “just”. John tells us that if believers will confess their sins to God as Father that He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. He can only be just in forgiving us our sins because Christ has stood in our place and bore the wrath. So this verse is speaking of the constant need for believers to confess their sins to God as Father so that fellowship with Him is unhindered. An unbeliever cannot claim the promises of this verse since he is not covered under the atoning work of Christ.
I hope that as you’ve read through this that you will marvel with me at the wisdom of God in the gospel. Marvel at His grace and mercy but be aware that His grace and mercy are made available only through the cross-work and merit of Christ Jesus. Our prayers as believers should go out to the church in America that it will return to proclaiming the full and true gospel of Jesus Christ and repent from the gospel of moralism and legalism. I see first hand week after week when evangelizing to people who are active church members who know absolutely nothing of the true gospel. They believe they are saved and going to heaven for every reason imaginable except for the one and only way through Christ.
I pray also that if you’re reading this and you have been trusting in your own act of asking for forgiveness for your salvation, turn in repentance and faith to the only One who can save you – Jesus Christ. Cry out to God to open your eyes to the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6) that you may embrace Christ as your Lord and Savior. Today is the day of salvation!
Soli Deo Gloria
I have been so blessed by the writings of the Puritans. Writings by some of my favorites include John Owen, John Bunyan and John Flavel. Another treasury of Puritan writings comes in a small package called The Valley of Vision. It’s a collection of anonymous Puritan prayers and each one is a gem on its own. If you don’t have a copy I commend it to you! I am amazed at their understanding of God’s sovereignty and our sinfulness and how each and every prayer turns our focus to where it belongs – Christ. Sadly, this is a direction that many churches today have left. Here is another incredible prayer from that collection entitled Divine Promises…
Glorious Jehovah, My Covenant God,
All Thy promises in Christ Jesus are yea and amen, and all shall be fulfilled. Thou hast spoken them, and they shall be done, commanded, and they shall come to pass. Yet I have often doubted Thee, have lived at times as if there were no God.
Lord, forgive me that death in life, when I have found something apart from Thee, when I have been content with ephemeral things. But through Thy grace I have repented; Thou hast given me to read my pardon in the wounds of Jesus, and my soul doth trust in Him, my God incarnate, the ground of my life, the spring of my hope.
Teach me to be resigned to Thy will, to delight in Thy law, to have no will but Thine, to believe that everything Thou doest is for my good. Help me to leave my concerns in Thy hands, for Thou hast power over evil, and brings from it an infinite progression of good, until Thy purposes are fulfilled.
Bless me with Abraham’s faith that staggers not at promises through unbelief. May I not instruct Thee in my troubles, but glorify Thee in my trials; grant me a distinct advance in the divine life; may I reach a higher platform, leave the mists of doubt and fear in the valley, and climb to hill-tops of eternal security in Christ by simply believing He cannot lie, or turn from His purpose.
Give me the confidence I ought to have in Him who is worthy to be praised, and who is blessed for evermore.
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