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
“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 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 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.
Lord, my sin, it grieves me so.
How I long for my Lord to come.
Bless my God who clothes me bright,
wraps me pure in heaven’s Great Light.
Spotless Lamb made sin for me,
God great Judge, just always be.
Sealed on high with Christ’s great Pledge,
never more will death I dread.
One with Him I stand secure,
Safe in Triune hands I’m sure.
Christ’s great merits givn’ to me,
I now hear God say, “Whom I’m pleased.”
I long to see the skies burn bright,
with heaven’s hosts all clothed in white.
See the King, His victory won,
Come, pure Bride behold the Son.
Merciful Lord,
Pardon all my sins of this day, week, year, all the sins of my life, sins of early, middle and advanced years, of omission and commission, of morose, peevish and angry tempers, of lip, life and walk, of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride, of unfaithfulness to the souls of men, of want of bold decision in the cause of Christ, of deficiency in outspoken zeal for His glory, of bringing dishonor upon Thy great name, of deception, injustice, untruthfulness in my dealings with others, of impurity in thought, word and deed, of covetousness, which is idolatry, of substance unduly hoarded, improvidently squandered, not consecrated to the glory of Thee, the great Giver; sins in private and in the family, in study and recreation, in the busy haunts of men, in the study of Thy Word and in the neglect of it, in prayer irreverently offered and coldly withheld, in time misspent, in yielding to Satan’s wiles, in opening my heart to his temptations, in being unwatchful when I know him nigh, in quenching the Holy Spirit; sins against light and knowledge, against conscience and the restraints of Thy Spirit, against the law of eternal love.
Pardon all my sins, known and unknown, felt and unfelt, confessed and not confessed, remembered or forgotten. Good Lord, hear; and hearing, forgive.
From Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers
“We are not the ministers of Christ if we preach in such a way that unconverted men do not know they are unconverted. Unless preachers preach so as to make the consciences of their hearers feel in what spiritual condition they are truly in, then they may be ministers of Satan, but they are not ministers of Christ.” – William Fenner (1600-1640)
Article 13: The Doctrine of God’s Providence
We believe that this good God, after he created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune but leads and governs them according to his holy will, in such a way that nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement.
Yet God is not the author of, nor can he be charged with, the sin that occurs. For his power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that he arranges and does his work very well and justly even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly.
We do not wish to inquire with undue curiosity into what he does that surpasses human understanding and is beyond our ability to comprehend. But in all humility and reverence we adore the just judgments of God, which are hidden from us, being content to be Christ’s disciples, so as to learn only what he shows us in his Word, without going beyond those limits.
This doctrine gives us unspeakable comfort since it teaches us that nothing can happen to us by chance but only by the arrangement of our gracious heavenly Father. He watches over us with fatherly care, keeping all creatures under his control, so that not one of the hairs on our heads (for they are all numbered) nor even a little bird can fall to the ground without the will of our Father.
In this thought we rest, knowing that he holds in check the devils and all our enemies, who cannot hurt us without his permission and will.
For that reason we reject the damnable error of the Epicureans, who say that God involves himself in nothing and leaves everything to chance.
from the Belgic Confession
The Bible Minute is a short audio program featuring a Bible topic each week.
This week’s topic focuses on just how significant it is when believers address one another as brother and sister. We’ll look at why that is theologically significant and how that should impact the lives of believers. The Scripture reference is 1 John 3:1.
Listen to this week’s episode.
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