Divinely-Imparted Faith in Divinely-Declared Faithfulness

Naturally, the salvation engineered by our Lord affords us no small degree of comfort, as He is the only One who could have accomplished such a thing, as well as the One in whom the greatest degree of fury was (justly) provoked by our sin.  We rejoice, then, to examine our salvation and to marvel at the exact blend of qualities that the Lord brought to bear in the unique purchase of that salvation.

There was grace, of course, as well as rock-solid holiness.  There was love, there was power, and there was justice.  We celebrate each of these, of course, but there is yet one more quality which was just as urgently vital, but perhaps not considered so often as it should be. 

It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
If we endure, we will also reign with Him;
If we deny Him, He also will deny us;
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.

- 2 Tim. 2:11-13

In this brief passage, Paul makes four very stark conditional statements that lead back to the nature of salvation.  Indeed, some believe that these lines may have been lifted from an early Christian hymn, but whatever the case, these lines are charmingly direct and truthful.  To partake of Christ's death on the cross, à la Romans 6, is to partake of His resurrection life as well.  To persevere in one's faith until the end is to move to eternal glory at Christ's side, rather like Revelation 2:10.  To deny Christ is to be denied by Christ before the Father (Matt. 10:33).  And to respond in faithlessness to Christ (that is, to pridefully spurn repentance) will by no means induce Christ to respond faithlessly in kind (in other words, He will always be true to His gospel - in just condemnation).

It is this last truth that is so interesting in our present discussion.  The Lord cannot help but demonstrate infallible integrity to who He is; He never does anything unbecoming toward His holy and perfect name.  Paul's words therefore warn that Jesus will always be faithful to confer upon the unbelieving the just doom of hell.  To do anything else would be to violate His own principles and plans. 

In a like manner, this complete integrity by the Divine assures our enduring salvation.  It is the glue, do you see, that holds together all the rest of God's wonderful attributes in salvation.  All the grace in the world avails us little if the Bestower of such blessing becomes indifferent in its dispensation. Divine power is precious only so long as it accomplishes God's established purposes - if it does not, we lose the Romans 8:28 promise that all things happen for our good as believers (and thus naught can arise to rob us of salvation). 

We need constancy of gracious attention in the maintenance of our salvation.  Consider a moment how it would be if your Savior could, at any moment, choose to revoke His mercy, to repeal His pardon, to remove His sealing Spirit.  What terrors would visit you at every turn, what demons would constantly pluck at your sleeve, if this were a real concern!  His omnipotence would yield but small satisfaction, and His grace would offer only transient comforts, were He plagued with bouts of faithlessness to Himself.  What torment would wrack our tired hearts:  Do I stand in His good graces?  Have I somehow compromised myself?  Do His fancies run contrary to my wellbeing?

We could never know where we stood with a fickle God, but we would never be surprised to find that we had fallen from His grace.  Praise be to God, though, that this is wholly, utterly not the case.  "I, the Lord, do not change." (Mal. 3:6b, emphasis added) He stands so entirely apart from moral corruption, indecision, or second guessing that these lines of thought are bafflingly foolish.  He operates with an omniscient integrity and a sovereign wisdom - He can be assailed by no surprises, for His plan encompasses all things.

Rather, our Lord Christ says, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand." (John 10:27:29) This, brothers and sisters, lies at the very center of our faith!  Our faith would be but a hollow sham, scarcely lip service, but for the fact of God's faithfulness!  His Spirit residing in us builds our faith by helping us to understand the truths of God, so in a very real manner, His divinely-declared faithfulness feeds our divinely-imparted faith.

This is the stuff of daily praise, my friends. 

The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I have hope in Him.”
- Lamentations 3:22-23

God Bless the Child (Who Gives Us Peace)

This, believe it or not, is a post about Christ, and though it may not appear as such for a while, I must importune your patience and indulgence.  Sometimes the sobering realities of humanity's deserved lot are the best way to illuminate Christ's glory; amen?

Imagine for a moment that you have died in your sins, and that the time of your judgment has come upon you. (You will remind me, of course, that these are events very likely to be separated in time for most of us, which is true, but we will skip to the judgment here.) You find yourself, eyes to the ground, before the Lord Jesus Christ, unmistakable in power and incontrovertible in holiness.  This is no dying Savior upon the cross, not anymore.  This is the risen, exalted King.  Perhaps those words once caused no more than a shrug or a smirk with you, but now you see what they mean, in their fullest, most wondrous, most terrifying sense:  Christ, the risen, exalted King.

You feel the hope and the confidence bleeding out from your heart - a flow not to be stanched, a death wound.  Your legs are stone, and you make no doubt that this God - the only God there is, you now see - will know all about you, more than you know yourself, and far, far more than you would care to remember, if you could help it.  Your life is laid bare, though, and the sum total of what you are overwhelms the simple objections you used to make in defense of your supposed goodness of character.

You are a sinner.  God is holy.  He justly delivers your sentence of condemnation.

Perhaps you meet this sobering moment with quiet.  Perhaps, though, you are familiar with Jesus, and so feel as though your long hypocrisy gives you cause to speak, to say something before all is lost.  So words erupt from your lips and hang as a conspicuous intrusion into the reverence demanded by divine holiness.  You have just spoken the only words you will ever speak in the presence of God, and they are blasphemous:  "‘Lord, Lord, did I not do many things in your name?" (cf. Matt. 7:22) You have questioned the recollection of the Omniscient, and the judgment of the Omnisapient (the All-Wise); He is not moved; this latest sin augments your considerable tally, and you go down to the lake of fire.

As you find yourself in the suffocating maw of that blackness, the punishment will begin.  Whether you have a brief instant to anticipate and to dread the arrival of God's wrath or not, I cannot say.  However, when the fullness of divine, just, holy fury explodes upon you in that lonely place, it will exceed the meager limitations of any of your experiences or imaginings.  You will feel, in that first instant, that there is no possibility of your surviving even this preliminary fragment, this barest sliver, of God's fury.  How indeed could it not destroy you, and all of the universe with you, in a truncated flash of agony?  It is as though every conceivable pain which mankind has ever endured, or ever could endure, through every millennium of our world, has been compressed and concentrated into one divine blow - except a thousand times stronger.

The intensity of this fury is not the amazing part - the truly astonishing thing is that you find yourself quite whole and intact; indeed, the next wave of torment is already upon you.  You find even that your mental faculties are similarly preserved, although such complete agony should drive one mad.  It is then that it drives home in your perfectly clear intellect - the same God who visits such omnipotent fury upon you is the God who has omnipotently fitted you for that fury.  It will never consume you completely.

This is a pain beyond reckoning, a sharp, hot, complete misery that would annihilate a normal human body in a heartbeat.  Ten thousand white-hot bands of iron wrapped about your frame and searing into your flesh would be a welcome, even laughable alternative to what you now endure.  How I wish it could be described!  It crowds out and banishes hope.  You may clench your fists; you may double over until your knees touch your cheeks, but no such measures will bring relief.  Your tricks from your previous life can do nothing here.  Neither is there a friend whose hands you may grip, whose shoulder you could embrace.  You are utterly alone; your only companions are your own cries.  There is also nothing to distract your mind from your torment; the once-pleasant recollections of your former life now simply herald your sinfulness.

In fact, in the basest sense, this is probably the complete and ultimate focus of all your thoughts:  God and my sin.  God and my sin.  God and my sin.  Every wave of agony brings a fresh remembrance of your absolute deservedness of hell.  You cannot argue against the justness, but as you never learned to love God when you labored under His grace, you certainly cannot do so now.  You find yourself cursing Him with the appallingly blasphemous self-destruction of unrestrained sinfulness.  And for this, your miseries are now doubled, but still you live. 

As this indescribable maelstrom of inescapable agony continues, you realize that you are not growing accustomed to it at all.  It is in no way like those pains back on earth that afflict people until they simply learn to deal with them on a continual basis.  Every stab, every bite, every hot needle is exquisite in its novelty and relentless upon your person.  If there are two things which you begin to learn after the first thousand years of unbroken torment (that first drop in that infinite, incomprehensible bucket), they are simply that you will never grow even the slightest bit acclimated to your situation (if anything, the contrary), and that you will never, ever get out of hell.  Could you see that great ocean that is God's holy wrath against you, your heart would break to see that it has not lowered even a thousandth of an inch.  Your shrieks of pain, of frustration, of hopelessness, and of black, impotent rage, will never cease to pour from your parched and writhing lips. 

This is what it is to have enmity with God - a battle which we can never win, and which will rob us of every glory, every prize, every grace, and every hope.  Of course, we have no choice but to be the enemies of the Lord, having been born into the family of sin.  Romans 3 teaches us that we never could and never would love God, so it seems a hopeless matter from a human standpoint.  We are doomed, in and of ourselves, to run straight into the teeth of hell.

I speak specifically to you here, Christian.  Walk your mind as profoundly as you can through the horrific marches of hell, which, for all these words, I have not even begun to describe here - this is how the enemies of God meet eternity.  It is sure, unavoidable, and deserved. 

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

These are familiar words, but does your heart not bound for gladness at them?  Read the last phrase once more:  Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace.  This is a far, far greater thing than the dubious fraternity that the world pretends around Christmas - this is peace with God Himself!  This is a complete reversal from the devastating certainty of eternal despair at the hand of a just God to the heartening certainty of eternal delight at the hand of that same God!  "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1)

Let us never commit the sin of naming Christ the Prince of Peace without reverent remembrance of what that means - the incredible magnitude of the hell which He suffered on the cross, and the immeasurable gift of peace with God.  Our esteem for Christ the peace-giver should be seeping more and more, if not outright flooding, into every element of our lives - certainly into our interaction with others and into our faithfulness to kingdom work, but let it start where it should, with a heart of humble and grateful worship toward the Prince of Peace.

The Strength of Adoption

“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12) How comforting it is that our adoption by God is not simply an empty title or an honorary position – we are not merely called children of God; rather, we have become children of God by His grace.  As the hymn says, “I, thy true son.”

 

If anyone doubts the strength of adoption, we remember what some have pointed out regarding our Savior’s earthly kingship.  Although both Joseph and Mary were tied directly to the line of David, Jesus would have inherited His claim to the throne from His paternal side, per Jewish custom.  Thus His right of earthly kingship came from Joseph, who was not His father by birth, but by adoption.  If there were no strength behind adoption, then, Christ would have no claim to the throne, and He would not fulfill all the Messianic prophecies, meaning that He could not be our Savior!  The strength of Christ’s earthly adoption is the basis for the strength of our heavenly adoption!

 

We also see its strength by its longstanding nature.  Our adoption was in the Lord’s plans before time began (Eph. 1:5), and it will culminate through to eternal glory (Rom. 8:23)!  This is no casual undertaking by the Father, but carefully calculated and painstakingly brought about.  We are certain that God is faithful to complete the work that He starts in His people (Phil. 1:6).

 

Finally, its strength is made obvious when we consider our own hapless natural parentage.  We were formerly sons and daughters of Satan (John 8:44, 1 John 3:8) , to be classified as “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2) and “children of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).  This is an evil, self-destructive, despondent sort of lineage; children from this family possess absolutely no qualities that might charm a holy Judge to spare them.  In spite of this, however, that very Judge has made Himself to be the heavenly and eternal Father of a great multitude adopted out of this natural family.

 

Our response to our own adoption should reflect an intimate awareness of its strength.  For instance, we know that the Holy Spirit brings a powerful testimony to those adopted by God that they are indeed His children (Rom. 8:16).  This certainty is what allows us and strengthens us to hold to the Lord and to get on with His kingdom work, in spite of seemingly overwhelming adversity.

 

Along these lines, Paul proclaims that our adoption by God should generate a ruthless attitude toward personal sin (Rom. 8:12-17).  Gone is the spirit of slavery within us, and in its place, the spirit of adoption powerfully directs us away from fear and toward Spirit-led living!  We thus cling with a divinely-imparted tenacity to our newfound Father through earthly temptation until our labors give way to the triumphant glory of eternity.

The Old Exchange

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. 5:21) As a child, I memorized this verse, and its salvific import was not lost on me, at least not entirely:  the Father punished the Son for our sins when He had committed no wrong.  Of course, there is much more than simply this residing in those few words, but what seems to leap from the page at first blush is the imputation of Christ's righteousness to undeserving sinners like you and like me.  However, the opposite side of this glorious truth is just as hard-hitting, is it not?

Indeed, I remember not so many years ago hearing Dr. MacArthur comment on this verse with these words - so simple, but deceptively momentous:  "...God treated [Christ] as if He sinned all the sins of all who would ever believe. Is that incredible? Sin, not His at all, was credited to Him as if He had committed it and paid the price. And He didn't...but it was credited to Him as if He did...Sin was imputed to Him, it wasn't His, He never sinned." (emphasis added)

Sin was imputed to Him.  As I ground through the daily commute after a long day at work, I actually had to back the sermon up a few seconds, just to listen to that statement one more time.  What a humbling and devastating and glorious truth this is!  Certainly, I had long known that the Christ had to pay the price for our sins if we were to be saved, and had loved this truth and relied upon its reality for my very salvation.  Two points, however, came through very clearly that caused me to cherish and to cling to Christ's work on the cross anew in that humbling moment (and in many such moments thereafter, even to this day).

1.  The imputation at the cross was twofold.  The undeserved favor which the just Father bestowed upon us necessitated the bestowal of an undeserved curse upon the divine Son.  In order for God to look upon us with the eyes of sovereign justice and see only Christ's righteousness covering our sins completely, He had to also look upon His only eternal son with those same just eyes, and see our sins covering His righteousness completely.  Never, never did a more unimaginably vicious condemnation befall a more totally and wholly undeserving person - indeed, the most grievous imbalance possible (until the grace of salvation brings that balance; consider that for a moment).  The Man of perfect holiness, of impeccable righteousness, was regarded as vilest of sinners, and punished in dreadful and infinite extent.

Is there a greater irony than this?  Christ, in whom there resides a divine hatred which is eternal, abiding, perfect, infinite, and pure, and to whom was handed all judgment by the Father (John 5:24), receives the completest measure of the very wrath which He, in His divine holiness, possesses against sinners.  Wonder of wonders - the Father did not stint in His wrath, did not hold back the slightest force in His punishment, did not afford His own Son the slightest special consideration, but rolled relentlessly upon the Christ breaker after breaker of perfect and unmitigated divine fury.  It pleased the Father to do so (Is. 53:10), and indeed it pleased the Son to do so as well (John 4:34).  Does it not take your breath away just to think of it?

2.  Christ was punished not just for sins in general, but sins in specific.  Christ did not suffer for nondescript, generic, faceless sins.  He did not suffer for a given amount of sin, so as to possess a predetermined portion of forgiveness in the economy of salvation.  He endured the boundless enormity of the Father's wrath for our sins, brothers and sisters (Is. 53:6).  Every one of my sins was laid upon Jesus's frame on that day - the Father, with heartbreaking omniscience, did not forget a single one, but gathered them all upon the Christ, and then exacted punishment for each one. 

Oh, that the Savior should have to suffer for my frivolity or carelessness with sin!  Every sin committed and then forgotten in the same breath, every temptation looked upon with quiet indifference, every trespass suffered to wreak havoc with discouraging repetition - all of these and much, much more freighted innocent shoulders that day at Calvary.  Are there words? 


To you, my dear fellow soldier in the faith, I ask - as you consider once more the death and resurrection of our Savior on this blessed holiday, will you be unmoved by the cross?  Will your heart remain even as it has been?  Let it not be so, dear friend.

To you, the one who has not known this Christ, who has not sought the unique salvation which He brokered, I ask - will you not consider this God who gave so wholly of Himself to provide a means of escape from the eternal doom which rightly awaits every person? 

Christianity A La Carte: Salvation Without Lordship

In our discussion about how glory and belief are intertwined, I made an assertion to the tune of "you will have works if you are truly saved," and stated simply that it was a separate topic.  Here, friend, is the separate topic. 


Effectively, there are those who maintain that the grace of salvation, dependent solely upon the work and discretion of God Himself, costs us nothing, and, as such, requires nothing from us but perhaps an assent of gospel truth, and an acceptance of salvation.  Anything else would add an anthropic element to the gospel:  we crowd upon the grace of God with some sort of required human work, thus removing the graciousness of God's grace.  On the surface, this appears as good sense, but we must take care.  True, we cannot earn our salvation with goodness; to suggest otherwise is to diminish the unique value of God's gracious gift.  However, somtimes the idea is moved much further:  it is said that we cannot expect Christians to live righteous (or even repentent) lives, because to affix such expectations to life in Christ would be to attach external requirements to the gospel, and thus render it more man-centered than Scripture can support.  "If you say you must do certain things as a believer," they cry, "then you are saying you must earn your salvation.  All you need to do is believe."

As I write this, it seems so ludicrous as to not require refutation, but this, alas, is not the world in which we live.  There is no longer any falsehood in all of Christendom which we might regard as so foolish that we need not decry it.  So let us begin, and if we find our hearts and minds familiar with these ideas, as many might, then at least we might rejoice once more at their powerful truth.  Here are some lines of reasoning to refute this thinking.

1.  The Divine Revelation of the Relationship Between Faith and Works
James, who was tolerably active in the church, and had at least a passing acquaintance with the Christ (note sarcasm), said this:  "What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?...But someone may well say, 'You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.'" (James 2:14, 18) This is simple and wonderful - saving faith does not, does not, does not fail to produce good works.  As a believer, my works should demonstrate the reality of my faith, according to James.  These works do not produce salvation; rather, it is salvation that gives rise to the works.

Paul testifies along this same thought that we are saved by grace through faith (familiar lines in Eph. 2:8-9), and continues, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." (v. 10) Paul upholds salvation by grace, and then in the next sentence explains that this salvation, by God's expert work, leads us into good works.  The Father has decreed that the Christian life should be freighted with righteousness!  Does your life possess a focus of righteousness, my friend?  What does it mean if it does not?

2.  The Unchanging Character of God
Joshua 5:6a:  "For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord."  The Lord has never cared for sin (to clothe it in the mildest possible terms), and it seems unwise to suppose that He is indifferent to its motions in those whom He has saved from its consequences.  His will is indeed our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3a), which is not at all surprising.

3.  The Impartation of New Life in Christ
At the start of Romans 6, Paul voices the opinion of some that grace permits sin, and then dismisses it not only as the gravest absurdity, but as an actual impossibility:  "May it never be!  How shall we how died to sin still live in it?" (Rom. 6:2) We who have been saved, says Romans 6, have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection, and the strength of this identification with the Savior shatters our enslavement to sin.  Marvel how Paul later describes himself in Christ, in spite of sin and temptation, "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." (Rom. 7:22b) This new life, while retaining a capacity for sin, nevertheless has lost its appetite for sin.  Do you see this hunger for purer things in your life?

4.  The Equality of Belief and Obedience
John the Baptist renders a great service in simply equating belief with obedience:  "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36) To John, one either believes and has eternal life, or does not obey, and receives wrath. (Take care with your Bible translation - some translate "obey" as "believe," but the word is not the same as the "believe" earlier in the verse.) The writer of Hebrews further declares that Christ "became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation." (Heb. 5:9) Do you perceive the importance and essential quality of obedience? 

5.  The Assurance of Obedience
Is still more clarity needed?  Is your heart yet doubtful?  Let us learn from the apostle John:  "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.  The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar." (1 John 2:3-4a) "No one who is born of God practices sin." (1 John 3:9) "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3) Taking these as a whole, we see that true believers do not, and indeed cannot, make sin a continual lifestyle.  They have a spiritual buoyancy:  though they will at times sink into the viscous, black muck of temptation, yet they will spring out again, crying for divine cleansing.  Obedience can be assumed or pretended, at least for a season, but the true longings of the heart cannot be falsified, so again I ask, do you desire righteousness, deep down in your very bones, friend?  Does Christ-likeness remain your earnest quest?


Obedience, brothers and sisters.  Jesus has set Himself up to be our Lord, and His Word reveals that He will not trouble to be our Savior if we do not welcome His lordship as well.  Again, our obedience does not buy salvation, which would be a grievous blow indeed to divine grace, but it is a ringing declaration of the heaven-and-earth transformation which His gracious and unspeakable salvation has wrought within our unyielding, undeserving souls.  We obey because He has saved us, and if we find obedience repugnant in our quiet and honest reckonings, then we have not yet approached the point of salvation.  If this describes you, I beseech you to apply to the Lord - ask Him for the humility of spirit which will allow you to repent.  You cannot have it on your own.

Far from detracting from the glory of His grace, the requirement of obedience in fact sets it firmly upon a loftier, more stunning peak than we could have envisioned.  Praise be to the God who transforms those whom He adopts!

Christmas and Christ's Sobering Purpose

"For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur."  These words, spoken in Acts 4:27-28 (emphasis added), tell us that there was established divine intention behind the crucifixion and death of Christ.  It is the predetermined nature of this purpose that concerns us at this time of year, for it means that this purpose was in place even as Christ was born. 

For this reason, we cannot consider the birth of Christ without the death of Christ invading our thinking.  He came with a divinely-imparted anointing to serve as the great sacrificial Lamb.  There would be an abundance of teaching, and of example, and of proof of His divinity and messianic mission, but all would culminate in His death and resurrection, wherein He would conquer death and exhaust the inexhaustible wrath of God intended for His children in an unprecedented display of divine grace. 

All of this was in the mind of God, and indeed was set into motion, at the birth of Christ.  The Savior never deviated, willfully or accidentally, from His direct course toward the cross.  At the very first step of this momentous journey, the angelic host announced to the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." (Luke 2:14) As we ponder this peace, we realize that it is not a Hallmark Channel sort of peace in which gruff but lovable people are reconciled after years of hostility.  There is a curious notion today that Christmas itself (or often "the spirit of Christmas," which is never defined, but always seems to reside in the hearts of children on television) is sufficient to bring about a wondrous sort of peace between people.  Perhaps the thought is that Christmas simply brings out the best in people, or even that God works during the Christmas season with the simple purpose of increasing our love for each other.

We must get these purely humanistic notions out of our heads.  When we see the unbelieving world using Christmas solely as an opportunity to join together and love one another, do we not understand that this is worthless, tragic, even vile in God's sight?  It should break our hearts!  What satisfaction can God have in love that is not based in Him?  Is unity pleasant to His heart if His grace is not the bond of that unity?  We must sweep the stars from our eyes and see that these are people who are going to hell, and no well-wishing or kind gestures on their parts can remove them from this deserved fate.  It is like watching skydivers rocketing toward an erupting volcano - and then smiling as they join hands to make a formation as they plummet. 

The peace that was proclaimed on that wondrous night is, incredibly, peace with God.  Christ came to bring people peace with their Creator.  The very God who was, at every moment, slighted and angered anew by the sins of His creations, and who would someday judge them eternally for those sins, was at the very same time, extending an offer of grace, of peace, to these very people.  This peace, then, was a peace that was calculated to keep us from eternal destuction, offered by our divine Opponent, and bought with precious, divine, innocent blood, the blood of the very God whom we have offended so keenly.  It is a peace that utterly obliterates our petty, trifling notions of human peace and crushes its rubble with a mountain of pure grace, a strong mountain that all of eternity will not wear down.  This is worthy of our devotion, our thanksgiving, and our proclamation as we bear down on Christmas this year.  Amen? 

Peace with God, by the blood of Christ, who came as a baby, with a divine appointment.  "For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross..." (Col. 1:19-20b)

Grace and Humility: The Story of the Shepherds

It must have been strange enough from Joseph's perspective, to be standing in a stable as the father to a brand-new Child, the divine Child, laid in a manger for a crib.  But then, to hear quick footfalls and turn to see a group of breathless shepherds, who had obviously been running through the night, stop at this stable and gaze at this Child with a wide-eyed astonishment which all but announced that they had found what they so intently sought - a wholly new experience for this young carpenter, to be sure. 

But then, surely it must have been odd for the shepherds as well, as they stood there, breathing, their hands hanging empty when they had so constantly gripped the rod in careful protection of their now vulnerable flocks.  And now, before them - a family settled into a stable for the night with a newborn laid in a feeding trough.  Who knows but under different circumstances, a chuckle might have escape their lips, or a smirk pulled at their cheeks, to see such a thing? 

Certainly no bemused smiles were to be seen that night, though.  They came not listlessly, but with urgency and purpose:  they sought the Child which the angel of the Lord, blazing the lonely night with the glory of God, had proclaimed to them.  This in itself was a curiosity - the glory displayed through the angelic herald, and through the heavenly host, spoke powerfully of the greatness of the Child.  The angel's description - the promised Messiah, the needed Savior, the proclaimed Lord - would have further assured them that this was a matter of great importance, even if it was not apparent that by "Lord," "Lord of all heaven and earth" was intended.  So they hastened into town, determined to find Jesus (Luke 2:16).

In spite of the majesty and the grandeur which obviously lay within the infant Jesus, the angels did not go up to Jerusalem and proclaim these tidings.  The great kings of the world were not visited.  The religious chiefs of Israel were passed over, in favor of a handful of hardy shepherds of no consequence.  In that day and that time, shepherds were regarded as untrustworthy, unsavory characters, to the point that they were not permitted to testify in court,¹ so it is richly ironic that God should so graciously choose such as them to testify of the arrival of the Savior (Luke 2:17).  These were Christ's first earthly messengers, not clothed in pomp and regality, as befits a king, but in unwashed working clothes.

These shepherds were favored not only with a dazzling vista of divine glory and heavenly joy, but with the offer of staggering grace.  "...For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11; emphasis added) This Jesus would extend the offer of salvation specifically to these shepherds, just as He would specifically to countless others!  One cannot help but be reminded of Colossians 3:11b and its description of our renewal in Christ:  "no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all."  Our heavenly Father impartially adopts us into His family, and we are made brothers and sisters to each other just as truly as we become sons and daughters to Him.  Thus does a simple Roman jailer worship alongside a wealthy Jewish woman in Acts 16, and a prominent Pharisee-turned-apostle draw spiritual comfort from a young believer of mixed parentage in 2 Timothy 4:11.  The gospel is offered to all, and Christ, through His powerful grace, draws His people from all walks of life, to the praise of His name!

That unforgettable night, it was granted finally to the shepherds to visit the Child and gaze upon Him with seeking eyes and wondering hearts.  This brings us back to the beginning.  As they beheld Jesus, one cannot but wonder if the ordinariness of the scene might have assaulted their consciences.  Here was a masterful, anointed Savior from heaven, celebrated by the realm of holiness, and when He came to earth, there was nothing of the glory He so clearly deserved.  He rested His head on straw, and He was attended by sinful parents and sinful shepherds.  Mark this:  any personal excursion into humanity constitutes a relinquishment of indescribable and divine glory for Christ, no matter what the circumstances.  The situation in question, however, represented perhaps one of the greatest descents into humility imaginable.  He came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45).  He waded unflinchingly into the thick of humanity. 

Ironically, in so laying aside His glory, Jesus saw His name exalted over all others (Phil. 2:5-9).  At the same time, He also laid down for us an example of the godly attitude which we must emulate as His followers (Phil. 2:5), and herein lies the principle.  Jesus' humility is what afforded humanity His exemplary life, just as His grace is what provided us with His saving death.  How wonderfully both of these are realized through the story of these humble shepherds, crushed by glory as the great Shepherd arrived into their world!



1:  Taken from the Reformation Study Bible note on Luke 2:8 - available under "Show resources" at http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%202&version=NASB. 

Perfect Patience

Our infinitely holy God, by sheer virtue of His infinite holiness, is possessing of an infinite hatred of sin.  He cannot help but be so.  Holiness cannot choose but to oppose sin, or it is not holiness at all.  God removed of holiness is an impossibility, a horrible bit of paradoxical double-talk, so we conclude that He hates sin as steadily and as comprehensively as a thing could ever be hated (cf. Prov. 6:16-19). 

The utter repugnance of sin which resides within the Divine leads us to conclude that the barest shadow of patience within God in the face of sin must also be of infinite weight.  As God has righteously and immutably chosen to be the omniscient, incorruptible Judge of all the world (Acts 17:31), He cannot merely turn His back on sin.  He thus has every reason to hate sin and every motive to punish it, as well.

What happens, then, when infinite and holy justice collide with infinite and holy grace?  A window of incredible value is opened up:  a window of divine patience.  It is only this window that affords us any sort of chance at all to be saved by His grace.  The sword remains in its sheath; the Rider has not mounted His war horse, and we are incredibly extended the offer of salvation.  "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Pet. 3:9) Dear, divine patience!

There are those who would reckon this patience as weakness in our avenging Lord, or as proof of His fictitious origins (2 Pet. 3:3-4), but we know and rejoice that "He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed." (Acts 17:31b) So God's patience with sinners, my friends, is of infinite quality, but not of eternal quality (an interesting combination in our Lord).  It will reach its end on the day that God chose long ages ago.

Mark this well, brothers and sisters.  There is immeasurable glory in God's patience, just as there is incredible glory in His grace.  This divine forbearance floods the humble soul with a very tangible proof of God's incredible love, does it not?  However, there is no glory whatsoever for God to display through an eternal patience.  An eternity in which hell stands empty and unused demonstrates not patience, but apathy.  We see no justice here; only accommodation for sinners at the expense of God's holiness and biblical assertions.  Similarly, an incredibly long patience as God waits until all sinners repent reveals not a sovereign, loving God, but a weak sort of god who is enslaved to his own creation, who cannot move until they have, and whose words of warning are fodder for the scorn of depravity.  See how Christ's teaching about the narrow way (Matt. 7:13-14) is thus turned on its head. 

No, there lies in store for the unrepentant a fixed day in which the vast ocean of God's just wrath will confound its present bounds and break loose upon the world of God's enemies, roller upon everlasting roller.  The unsaved will by eternally drowned in the fury of the great Judge, immovably secured to an existence in which darkness, anguish, and loneliness are their only and just lot.  This is true because God's holiness and righteousness require it, but note too how well it shows us the strength of His present forbearance.  Let our lifelong brush with the immense patience of God prompt us to honor Him by making the greatest use of it - by obtaining so great a salvation, by growing in that salvation, and by proclaiming that salvation to others!

Simple Truth Entreated: The Response of Unbelievers (Part 5 of 5)

- Still others will declare, “I can believe in your God, but only as one God among many.”  I think you say this because you see there are many so-called gods in this world, and you cannot bring yourself to discount any of them, so long as people are worshiping them.  If people are sincere, if they believe they are right, then what right have we to declare otherwise?  Thus do we divorce belief from truth, for only when we remove truth is there room for so many opposing beliefs in this world.  Put another way, if people started to believe that two plus two actually equaled five, would this make five a viable answer alongside four?  Of course not!  It is preposterous, and yet we apply this very thinking to the spiritual world.   Real truth teaches, guides, and corrects, whether we refer to mathematics or theology. 

So we must honor truth, not beliefs.  Beliefs must be made to serve truth, and the Bible gives us absolute truth (John 17:17).  God says, “And there is no other God besides Me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none except Me.  Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Is. 45:21b-22)

- And what of those who state, “I cannot believe that the world is as evil as the gospel portrays it to be.  It is filled fundamentally good people.”?  If this is so, then the world is in terrible shape for having such good people.  Turn the television to any channel, or watch any small child for a day, or look for any candid moment into your own heart.  Can you escape the selfishness, the excuses, the frustration?   Aside from this, we do tend to judge our own goodness in relativity to those around us, but the gospel calls us to examine ourselves alongside the standard of our divine Judge, God Himself, and this standard is perfection.  All have sinned, and thus stand in need of salvation from that sin.

- There will be those who maintain, “Of course I have sinned, but I will count on my good works for the Lord to save me.”   This was the folly of many people in Jesus’ time as well.  They relied upon adherence to a set of rules (some from the Bible, and some not) to achieve a righteous standing before God.  This adherence, however, was never enough to save people – remember what Jesus said to a religious leader:  “You must be born again.” (John 3:7b) Just as a baby cannot bring about birth through his or her own actions, so we cannot achieve for ourselves the spiritual rebirth needed to save us. 

A legal example illuminates – a man is caught in a murder.  He is seen carrying out the killing, his fingerprints are on the weapon, and he has confessed.  However, he declares, “I know I have committed this terrible crime, but consider also the volunteer work I have done all my life.”  Will the judge be moved to mercy?  Of course not!  Doing what is expected cannot cancel out doing what is evil.  Justice looks at evil deeds without reference to good deeds. 

Aside from this, even the deeds which we do apart from God, and which we would reckon as good works, are viewed in a different light by God, who counts our own righteousness as naught but “filthy rags.” (Is. 64:6) If it is not done for Him in obedience and love, then it simply no good, no matter what it is.

- Finally, some have tragically concluded, “I believe in this gospel, but I am afraid I have sinned too much for the Lord to extend His grace.”  May your despair turn to rejoicing, for the gospel was made – made, we declare – for such a one as you.  You need not fear that the power of your sin is somehow greater than Jesus’ omnipotent victory over sin, or that the depth of your sin is greater than His reach, or that the murk of your sin will overpower the radiance of His grace.  Christ declared in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”  He is faithful with those who come to Him.  Remember Jesus’ command for all to repent in Acts 17:30?  If the all-knowing Lord has made such a command, then He is prepared to honor and bestow grace upon those who do repent. 

What you say is true in that we cannot deserve grace.  However, this is the very definition of grace, is it not?  No one deserves it, but the Lord, who is no liar (Titus 1:2) offers it to all.  This is the humbling glory of it all, the unique glory that God desires you to see, to relish, and to respond to in repentance and humility.   To you, we say again, repent now!  Believe that God is able and willing to save you, and repentantly seek that salvation on His terms.  If you find yourself unable to believe this, honestly approach the gracious God of all and plead with Him to bless you, so undeservedly, with a true and saving belief in Him.  

“For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

 - Romans 10:12-13

The gospel is and will always be the most important matter of our lives, whether we are children of God or are outside His grace.  While we are here on earth, it is the matter with which we all have to do, for it can either save us and fuel us for a righteous, obedient life, or it can consign us for all time to an eternity in hell.  It is the sole point of connection which God offers to humanity that promises the riches of forgiveness and sonship with God, rather than the just and perpetual misery which our sin demands.  Praise, praise our great God for the glory that torrents through the gospel – for the grace and the wrath laid side by side, for the power that assures His purposes, for the ever-present and unassailable justice, and for the love that saves His children.  May all of our selfish objections, and all that we seek to withhold, simply give way before the wondrous gospel of Jesus Christ.

Simple Truth Entreated: The Response of Unbelievers (Part 4 of 5)

Simple Truth Entreated:  The Response of Unbelievers

           

If you are reading this and have not been saved from the just penalty of your sins by Jesus Christ, or if perhaps the force of biblical truth has removed you of all your certainty of your salvation, then do not barricade your heart against the saving truth of the Word  Repentance and surrender to Christ are your only rational recourse.  True, the gospel seeks to invade your sinful heart, to conquer it, and to change it as to make it utterly alien, but you must, you must throw open the gates and let it enter undisputed, or it will kill you someday, and for all eternity.  This gracious offer of the Lord, so real and substantial in this instant, will not endure even a hairsbreadth beyond your own life – what certainty have you beyond this brief moment? 

As Paul implored, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Cor. 5:20b) We stand to gain nothing in this appeal, excepting joy, whereas you stand to gain “everything pertaining to life and godliness.” (2 Pet. 1:3b) Come; come now, before you draw another breath!  There is no matter of greater importance, nothing of truer urgency, than this matter of the sinful chasm between you and your Creator.  Do not wait for tomorrow when today may yet betray you!  “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Heb. 10:31) To die without Christ is to be judged by Christ, without the benefits of His protection or intercession.  He will weigh out your sins, and will justly repay each of them, including the sin of reading this appeal and ignoring it.  You will find yourself consigned to a blind torment beyond the reckoning of art or science, a lonely agony unsatiated by the endless passage of ages.  Surrender all to Christ; admit of your guilt before Him!  Plead His forgiveness, and lay your very life at His kingly feet.

If we urge you in light of His grace, we also charge you on the basis of His sovereignty.  “God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30b-31) God not only invites all to repent of their sins; He commands that repentance.  The day of judgment approaches, over which Christ will preside as proven, triumphant Lord, so the command has gone out:  repent now.  God has created this world such that He is Lord over all of it; He sovereignly issues His orders, and it falls to us to obey Him.  Fortunately, He is entirely wise, powerful, and righteous – we need not fear His leading. 

Many objections are commonly made by those who resist the gospel; let us briefly examine but a few:

- Some of you will say, “This is all well and good, but I simply do not believe in God.”  This is merely to say that you believe in yourself, for, as your finite mind cannot account for a God like the One revealed in the Bible, then He clearly must be a fabrication.  So you set yourself up as your own sure authority, and all your life is washed through the filter of your own good opinions.  Do you not see, though, how dangerous this becomes?  An earthworm could hardly conceive of a thinking, feeling, deciding, inventing human being, but this does not render human beings any less real.  Does an annelid’s inability to grasp music or technology make you or I any less real?  Surely not!  Rather, it serves to underscore the vast difference between a worm and a person.  

This vastness looms larger still between us and our God, and we cannot afford to dismiss this reality out of hand simply because it does not reduce to a comfortable human understanding.  In actuality, how disappointing would an entirely comprehensible deity be?  If God were such a one that could be understood completely, He would not be God at all, for this would fully assure us that He was a fabrication of the human mind.  Our inability to fully understand Him should not dissuade us of His reality.

- Some others will say, “Surely; I believe in God, but I cannot believe in your God.”  My friend, my God is the God revealed by the Bible; what better revelation of God and His character would you have?  Your own suppositions?  Another book, perhaps?  When science and archaeology have crushed countless so-called holy books to powder, the Bible stands conspicuously intact, a solitary monument in the midst of so much rubble.  Space does not permit a complete treatment of its enduring character, but I urge you, look into its history.  See how it has been preserved in the face of determined and repeated opposition.  Mark how its truths have not been altered, though it passes through centuries, through languages, and through cultures.  Note how it is the product of dozens of human minds from different eras and different nations, and yet it comes together as a cohesive whole.  You begin to understand that the Bible you hold in your hand is a startling book indeed – it is the revelation of the one true God to humanity, written perfectly by that very God through human agents, and preserved diligently by God against every feeble calamity and opposition that this world could muster.  To understand this book is to see our Creator as He has revealed Himself.

Simple Truth (Part 1 of 5)

Author’s Note:  We'll inaugurate this blog with a daily series on the gospel:  what it truly is, how it should affect believers, and how unbelievers should respond.  I urge you, whoever you are, to take a moment to read on.

God, the only true God and He who created all things (Is. 45:18, 44:24), being entirely holy (Rev. 15:4), sovereign (Ps. 103:19), and eternal (Is. 40:28), lives in three Persons – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (cf. Matt. 3:16-17, 28:19).

Although the world, as God created it, was “very good,” (Gen. 1:31), the human race has nevertheless become an unvarying group of sinners (Rom. 3:23, Eccl. 7:20), people who disregard God’s commands at every turn (Rom. 8:7-8).  This universal sinfulness has killed us spiritually (Eph. 2:1), making each of us worthy of eternal punishment (Rom. 6:23, Eph. 2:3, Matt. 25:41), and utterly  hindering us from pleasing God (Rom. 8:7-8).   God is entirely just, and must meet offenses against His own insuperable holiness with appropriate retribution (Ps. 7:12-13; 75:7-8):  an eternity of agony, separated from Him (Rev. 14:11, Matt. 25:46). 

It was not, however, God’s intention that the entire human race go down into eternal hell.  The masterful and incredibly loving stroke, devised before time began (Titus 1:2, Matt. 25:34), came in the form of Jesus Christ, God Himself, becoming fully human while still fully God (Phil. 2:6-7) and living a perfect, sinless life (1 Pet. 2:22, Heb. 7:26).  This life culminated in Christ willingly and sovereignly going to His own death (John 10:18) as His heavenly Father unstintingly laid the full weight of eternal punishment for the sins of many upon Him (2 Cor. 5:21, Is. 53:4-12).  We see that if Christ so suffered and died for our sins, then the just punishment for those sins has been depleted, and we need no longer go to Hell for them.  What gracious and superlative love!

After He had taken the Father’s just wrath upon Himself and died, He wondrously took up His life again three days later (Matt. 28:1-6, 1 Cor. 15:3-4), rising triumphantly from the dead and showing Himself to many (1 Cor. 15:5-8).  If He has raised Himself from the dead, then He has gloriously conquered sin and death – not only is He able to keep people from hell, then, but He can also give them eternal life (Rom. 6:3-10, 1 John  5:11)! 

The uniqueness of this act cannot be overlooked or understated.  When Jesus said that “no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6b), He demonstrated the solitary access He offered to the Father.  The apostle Peter later affirmed the same truth:  “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) If we would be saved from the just wrath of God for the sins in our hearts, we must seek that salvation by the means which He, the sovereign and only true God has established.

What is our response to this?  How can we have this life and avoid our eternal doom?  The command in the New Testament is that people “should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.” (Acts 26:20b; cf. Matt. 4:17).  In other words, we must remorsefully admit of our sinful character to God, and beg Him to forgive us on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice on behalf of sinners.  We must also understand that, according to Acts 26:20, we cannot claim to be repentant, but then continue to live and act just as we did before; we must count the cost (Luke 14:26-35).  Our salvation, if genuine, will bear the fruit of good works because we want to please God (1 John 5:3, Rom. 7:22)!

This is the story of us all, friends.  Have we ourselves availed ourselves of Christ’s precious blood and loving work of grace?  Have we humbled ourselves before a mighty and just God?  If so, do we now seize the opportunity to share this extraordinarily good news with others?  More on this later.