A Prayer to the Sovereign Lord

This prayer I found on the reformation21 blogsite written by John Leonard of Cresheim Valley Church. I could not resist in sharing this with you and share the blessing it had on me. What a wonderful prayer to read aloud and to make your own. Enjoy to and for His glory.

John Leonard Professor of Practical Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary and Pastor of Cresheim Valley Church, Philadelphia, PA (a daughter church of Tenth Presbyterian)

Our great God and Heavenly Father,

Forgive me, because my prayers are too often only selfish attempts to get what I want from you. I come, list in hand and little else. I justify this kind of prayer because you tell us in your word to ask, seek and knock.

My misconception of your true character robs you of your Sovereign Majesty and glory, an idolatry that is most evident in the way I pray. How dare I treat you, the Lord of the Universe, as if you were my delivery-boy: unconscious of you most of the time, summoning you when I need something, and dispatching you without so much as a “thank you.” Forgive me, Jesus, for treating you with less respect than the guards who mocked you, struck you, spit in your face, and then crucified you.

Forgive me for not praying in faith but rather out of a heart that is filled with superstition. For in truth, I believe prayer’s power lies in me or in another or even in prayer itself.

I have often gone to pastor, priest or saint, because they are “special”; they most certainly are able to get your ear, for you wouldn’t hear me. But it is my ears that are deaf to your voice calling me to come. And do not I betray you by believing that I need another mediator than the one you provide? What man could be more righteous than you Christ, and whose prayers would accomplish more? Is there any other who is continually interceding for me? I am faithless for not believing in your promises to come boldly into your presence because the way is made possible by the blood of your Son. What could you value more Father, than the blood of your Son?

I have ignored your instructions when I pray because I sound like a pagan, endless babbling and rants, trusting in my many words or getting the form right. My prayers have been long, elegant and emotional all to impress, to get your attention and win your approval; if not from you then at least from others. Sometimes I shout hoping that you will hear and answer me. If nothing else I hope that I am convincing myself and I call it faith.

Teach me again to pray as you taught your disciples to pray – so differently than I pray. For your prayer O Lord, is short, only eloquent in its simplicity, and straightforward.

Forgive me, for my prayers question your goodness and love by denying the very words my lips are confessing when I call you “My Heavenly Father.” How my prayers must break your heart because I don’t know you nor do I trust your word. Why do I not rest on your promises that guarantee with the giving up of your own Son that you will with him freely give me all things? Why do I call the bread you give me a stone and the fish a snake? If I being evil know how to give good gifts, how much more should I have confidence in you, Father.

But Lord, some days I feel like I can really pray and you hear me because I have been good or done something for you. Doesn’t that place you in my debt? Forgive me for making Christ’s death meaningless by valuing my pitiful acts as more significant than Jesus’ life and death. Why do I, Lord, desire to cover the perfect righteousness of Christ with my own filthy rags?

Father, dare I say, your sovereign rule offends me! How can you? How can you force your will on all creation, especially your children? What offends me is not the power, but that it is yours and not mine. Of course I never would admit that this is the reason I question your sovereignty. I prefer to look thoughtful and reflective, to be philosophical but if the truth were known, you hold all power, glory and all authority- and I want it. Have mercy on me Lord, for I still long for what my first parents coveted. For not being satisfied with bearing your image, I long to take your place. But this is not something you have denied me. In Christ you call me to join you, to reign with him. But Lord, Christ has chosen another direction than the one my heart is telling me; He in his glory steps down, to serve and to suffer but I want neither! Teach me Father to be like Christ and to desire a cross, that humiliation comes before exaltation, and that the glory of the resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering cannot be separated.

If I cannot have your place, then at least I can blame you for the deadness in my soul that is evident in the absence of prayer. After all Father, why should I pray if you already know and have already decided? Forgive me Lord, again like my first parents, I have believed Lucifer’s lie, the one he planted in our souls to doubt your goodness and love. Teach me to see you rightly Lord, that in all your attributes you are sovereign and your sovereignty fills all your qualities of wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Knowing you this way allows me to pray joyfully, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Don’t let me hide my lack of love for others and my disobedient heart behind theological speculation that would leave you responsible for my sin. Show me how your plan and my actions fit together, how your will and my freedom merge so that they are one. Help me understand that your election does not exempt me from praying for the lost, sharing the gospel and pleading with people to be reconciled to you, but because of your sovereign plan I can be outrageously bold, confident, and at the same time patient when calling others to Christ.

Instruct me Father in what the older saints knew, that your sovereignty was the reason to pray, and to pray prayers filled with blessing, thanksgiving and praise. Make me understand you the way the Psalmist did, who being convinced of your sovereignty, argued and plead his case before you using your own promises as his evidence. Or to say with Job, “behold he will slay me, I have no hope, even so, I will plead my case before him.”

Reveal your majesty to me like you did to Isaiah, that in seeing you, I will see the true folly of my sin and being cleansed by a baptism of fire can then, from a cleansed heart offer myself in service to you.

Move my heart like you moved the apostle Paul’s, that as he laid out your plan of redemption for the church in Ephesus he was caught up in blessing and glorifying you, so much so that he could not take a breath for almost an entire chapter.

Let me rest in the mystery of your election, knowing that I am but clay in your hands, that you harden the heart of whom you please, love whom you please, pass over some, cut off nations and graft in others. Behold, your kindness and severity. Until like your apostle I can pray,

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Make me to know the promises I look to and hope in, “that nothing can ever separate me from the love of God in Christ, that I am more than a conquerer,” can only comfort me if these promises are grounded in your sovereignty, “that you work out all things for the good of those who love you.” And resting in your plan, keep me Lord, from murmuring against you, manipulating and scheming to get my way.

Help me to see life like Joseph, who when he had a chance to take revenge on his brothers for their betrayal, saw himself not as the victim of their evil act but understood that his life fit into your much greater plan. And when I do not get my way or what I want, help to me see that it is not others who are obstacles, but you My Shepherd are leading me in the paths of righteous.

In the face of disaster, teach me to pray prayers that trust in your plan and Providence, wherever you lead me in life and whatever circumstances I might face. Because of your dominion, may I greet all things as gracious gifts from my Father in whom there are no shadows. Your sovereign mercy enables me to give thanks in all things so that your peace that passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind. Even in the most difficult events help me to pray a prayer of rejoicing and hope like Habakkuk prayed:

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places.

And when overwhelmed, Spirit, search my heart and mind giving expression to the cries of my heart with groanings too deep for words, bearing witness with my spirit that I am still your child and these cries are acts of faith that long for your kingdom to come.

Don’t let me be like Jabez Lord, who prayed for you to bless him and you graciously answered his prayer, but we are not told of any good Jabez did for you.

Most of all Lord, teach me to trust in your sovereign mercy the way Christ did. For trusting in your sovereign plan he could pray both, “Take this cup from me but not my will be done but Thine, Oh Lord.” Then give me the grace to like my Savior, who when persecuted for righteousness sake was able to say, “Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do.”

For it is only then Lord, that I will have learned to pray in faith, realizing that you have taken the list from my hands, and in my prayers you have mingled my desires with your will so that I have received something far greater than I could have hoped, thought or imagined. You will have given me what my heart truly desires and all that I need. You, Father.

For in trying to get what I want out of you by my prayers, you have gotten what you want out of me. For I have taken my eyes off my list and see only you and in that moment, I know why the Psalmist asked for just one thing, and sought just one thing, and that I like him pray, “may I dwell in your house Lord all the days of my life, to behold your beauty, and to meditate on you in your temple.”

Questions for Further Thought or Discussion:

1. Why pray if God is sovereign?
2. Examine how you pray, what do your words show about your understanding of the nature of God?
3. How would understanding the sovereignty of God affect both our prayers content and purpose?

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John Leonard can be reached via email at jleonart@wts.edu. Check out his church’s website at www.cresheimvalleychurch.org

Exclusivity in Salvation as a Comfort in Remembrance

Communion to me is an amazing gift from God to his church and to be able to have a reminder in a such a way that draws collectively the sheep to the cross in humble recognition and a remembrance of what was accomplished is something always to be sought after.

Recently there has been some talk between some friends and myself on the exclusivity of Communion and its correlation to the exclusivity of the Christian Faith. Understanding that communion is only for those trusting in Christ alone for salvation. One of the reasons we feel so strongly about this is rooted in the Passover meal, from which this meal stems. In the Exodus account of the Passover there is a section of instruction from the Lord to Moses and Aaron describing the institution of Passover. It reads as such, “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover: no foreigner is to eat of it; but every man’s slave purchased with money, after you have circumcised him, then he may eat of it. A sojourner or a hired servant shall not eat of it. It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. All the congregation of Israel are to celebrate this. But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it. The same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you.”

While these verses do highlight Gods grace as extended to gentiles as well as Jews it also does something important that I think a congregation can take comfort in. The Lord gives clear instruction on the exclusivity of this new ordinance in which they were to practice. The demands were so great for outsiders who wished to partake that not just conversion through speech was needed, but actual circumcision, a sign of their obedience and worship to the true God Jehovah and His law. Why? Why go to such great lengths to keep the practice exclusive?

I think one reason is that Passover was symbolic to Jews alone, that is, it represented salvation only to those who were saved. It was only the Jews that the Lord had called out and brought out of slavery into freedom, only the Jews can rightly understand in an experiential tribute the salvation wrought by God. For this reason it is clear why only Jews may partake in Passover, it just doesn’t apply or make real sense to anybody else, for no other group of people experienced Gods salvation. This leads to the second reason.

The extreme exclusivity preserves the sanctity and sacredness of the practice. It was only to those who were saved by the blood of the lamb and were passed over by the Lords wrath that exodus from Egypt was possible. And the Lord knows that while in the wilderness and especially in the Promised Land there would be a tendency of the Jewish nation to forget how God brought salvation and in time make a mockery of the very institution of Passover in which they were called to remember Gods salvatory work in their lives and forefathers lives. If outsiders were allowed to wantonly partake in Passover, this would certainly make a travesty of the whole practice in that Gods mighty work done in Egypt did not apply to these people.

This is a point that we as Christians should not loose sight of and I believe is helpful to us in meditating on Christ. While we are charged with remembrance of our salvation by taking the bread and the cup, know that we can come humbly yet with confidence in that our very own salvation through Christ the perfect Lamb, is forever secure, protecting us who have faith from the wrath of God. That our salvation is not of our own heritage or of our attendance to a healthy church, but is a gift of the Father, the very death and resurrection of His own Son to those who believe. Even more specifically, our celebration and remembrance of Christ work on the Cross, our Passover meal of communion, strictly applies only to Christians. We are a people set apart for God and the same exclusivity applies to us as it did to the Jews thousands of years before. For faith in Christ is much more than conversion by speech but it is a circumcision of the heart, that is the renewing or rebirth of our hearts and lives, realizing the state of slavery and death we once lived in and the freedom we have now been given, chosen by the Father, purchased by the blood of Christ, and made effective by the work of the Holy Spirit. We take the bread and the cup in loving and grateful remembrance of ALL that was accomplished for us. That our salvation was and is a work of God, directed to his church. We take these elements as a remembrance to the most sacred and wonderful experience of our lives, our salvation in Christ. Is your heart circumcised? Do you feel the weight of His Holiness? If not, then to take the bread and the cup is to make trivial what Christians hold to be most dear to their lives, safety in the blood of Christ. John beautifully expresses this when he says of Christ that “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.” Our belief in Christ is a belief in the resurrection of our once spiritually dead souls and a continuous salvation in our lives until we are finally brought home to heaven, made pure and blameless through the blood of the Lamb.

Oh Father, I believe, I believe, I believe. I and the church trust in your word and in your promise of salvation to those who believe, and with our hearts laid open to you we confess our sin and look forward to our glorification. Let us as a universal Church of believers remember you rightly in your work on the cross for the salvation of us who believe. Let us take seriously your supper and recognize your grace in our lives and the narrowness but completeness of your salvation. Father we thank you that the exclusiveness of your grace highlights the securing work of Christ’s death in our lives and that you will complete what you have started in us. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

Charles Ryrie: The Holy Spirit

It may go with out saying that the third person of the Trinity is the least understood and least studied person with in the God head leaving many Christians uninformed and ill prepared to discuss His work, ministry, and even proper identification. Charles Ryrie has done an invaluable service to the church then by writing a work that addresses such a dilemma and succinctly organizes into a solid teaching a study into and on the Holy Spirit. Aptly titled The Holy Spirit, Ryrie packs a lot into the 206 pages of his revised and expanded edition. The back cover description boasts that the book “avoids confusion and trendiness, sticking uncompromisingly to the revealed Word of God.” This, for the most part, seems to be the case where as Ryrie’s main purpose is to show the person of the Holy Spirit as He is portrayed through Holy Scripture.

The book is split up into 22 chapters and though the book doesn’t make these distinctions outright, Ryrie may agree with me in that the outline of the book can be separated or organized into four main parts. Chapters one through four can serve as scriptural identification, definition, and description of who the Holy Spirit is. Chapters five through ten describe the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit in His different functions through out scripture. Chapters eleven through fifteen deal with the specific work of the Spirit in salvation, both leading up to faith and continuing through to glorification, and then finally chapters sixteen through twenty one deal with the work of the Spirit as ministering to the church and church age believers. Chapter 22 just gives a brief overview of the history of the doctrine as well as a helpful bibliography on the subject of the Spirit.

Of the four different sections the ones I enjoyed reading most were the chapters that dealt with who the Holy Spirit was (one through four) and the chapters that discussed the Spirit’s work in salvation. (Eleven through fifteen)

Ryrie does an excellent job at defining who the Spirit is as a personality in his chapter titled He or It? He walks the reader through a number of different texts that show the distinct personhood of the Spirit, thus putting to rest the often made mistake of calling the Spirit an ‘it.’ For instance, in Ephesians 4:30 we see a clear situation in which the Spirit can be grieved, commanding the reader to “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.” An inanimate force or energy can not be grieved, only someone who demonstrates personhood can experience the emotion of grief. Again, in Acts 5:3 we see the Spirit being lied to when Peter asks Ananias “why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Surely one can not lie to a force or non person like a computer or TV, the absence of personhood marks the absence of moral responsibility; the Holy Spirit must then be a person. The most interesting of Ryrie’s arguments was his use of grammar to show the Spirit’s personality. He writes,

“The greek word for spirit is pneuma and is a neuter gender word. According to every normal rule of grammar, any pronoun that would be substituted for this neuter noun would itself have to be neuter. However, in several places the biblical writers did not follow this normal rule of grammar, and instead of using a neuter pronoun when referring to the neuter noun pneuma, they deliberately contradicted the grammatical rule and used masculine pronouns. Indeed, they used two different kinds of pronouns, all in the masculine gender. This shows that they considered the Spirit to be a person and not merely a thing.” (pg 17)

This truth of course has major ramifications for any student of the scriptures or God, most notably dealing with ones perception of the Trinity. And this is exactly where Ryrie takes the reader, showing that the person of the Holy Spirit is an important doctrine to believe simply because it bears so strongly a witness to His relationship with the other persons of the Trinity, thus begging His deity. The crucial text found in Matt. 28:19 where we are commanded to “baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,” would not make much grammatical sense if the first two figures are presented as persons where as the last is only a force. The use of the word ‘name’ in vs. 19 Ryrie argues indicates His personhood just as the Father and Son are represented as such.

In chapter nine, Ryrie addresses the often misunderstood teaching of Blaspheming the Holy Spirit and uses Matt.12:22-33 to show contextually what the bible means by this feared unforgivable sin and even though I may agree with his outcome I still feel like he left some questions unanswered. He says that because the Pharisees’ sin of ascribing the work of the Holy Spirit to that of Satan was made all the worse by the actual presence of Christ and that it was their wickedness in light of Christ’s present holiness that caused the unique circumstances for this sin to take place, it could therefore never happen today. But I still ask why. If I ascribe a miraculous work, say tongues or prophecy, to the work of Satan in a present day person how am I different than the Pharisees of Christ’s time. I feel this could have been dealt with a little more by giving more arguments for why this sin is restricted to the past.

Ryrie does, I think an excellent job in discussing General or Common grace and touching on the fact that the cross of Christ, though given to save a few, had universal effects reaching all people. “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4)

Chapters eleven and twelve I thought were the most engaging and displayed a brilliant overview of the Spirit’s work in bringing sinful, unregenerate people to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. He deals first with the doctrine of Efficacious Grace, though he sadly prefers the title Special Grace, and rightly connects the doctrine with that of sin, or mans total depravity. The calling of the Spirit in man, leading him to salvation, therefore becomes a work entirely of God because sinful man is unable to bring himself to life. It is then mans inability that shows by contrast the power of the Spirit in His effectiveness to bring life and willingness where there was once death and heavenly disdain. Chapter twelve explains the doctrine of Regeneration or being born again of the Spirit and though Ryrie hits the mark in describing this theology to first time readers I think he definitely misses the mark in unfolding the process regeneration takes in salvation or the ordu salutis. “Although this may be seen as a logical order, (Regeneration before faith) it is undebatably not a chronological one. Regeneration does not precede faith chronologically.”(pg 90) Firstly, it is misleading or confusing to use the word ‘undebatably’ because Ryrie must be aware that there is debate concerning the order of regeneration to faith both logically and chronologically[i]. Secondly, no where in his argument of regeneration being simultaneous with faith does he use scripture to back up his conclusion, he simply just tells the reader what he thinks proclaiming that any conclusion differing from his is “a monstrous idea [being] completely unbiblical.” This, I argue, is an unfair appraisal of the issue, where as elsewhere he is sure to look at scripture for support, here I think he strays and misses an opportunity to look at such verses like Jn 1:12, Jn 3:3-5, 1 Jn 3:9, and definitely Rm 8:30.

Overall the book has been delightful to read and incredibly encouraging. Each chapter gives a brief application for what comes out of each doctrine pushing the reader to really look at the Spirit; not as a set of facts, but as a part of the Godhead who has graciously and most lovingly entered into a relationship with those whom God has chosen to pour out His special love to. Also as you read each chapter you notice how Ryrie makes a point to continually show how each work or ministry or promise points again and again to the Spirits deity. Reading this book has been a treat and has certainly added depth to my personal walk and prayer life. I echo Charles Ryrie’s prayer in response to D.W. Whittle’s hymn:

“’As Lives the flow’r within the seed

As in the cone the tree,

So, praise the God of truth and grace,

His Spirit liveth in me.’

How we do praise God that He – the Father, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit live in me.”

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[i] See Part II of John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied for a full critique of the place regeneration plays in the ordu salutis. He biblically and logically shows regeneration preceding faith.

Amazing Grace: The Classic Hymn

 This song is so beautiful to sing and I admit every morning I belt this out as loud as I can while taking a shower.  (I wonder if I’m still allowed to do that once I’m married?)  Any way, I thought I’d simply just post the lyrics to this classic song so readers could read and meditate on the beautiful and God exalting message that John Newton lays out.  He really displays nothing but the Gospel in this song and I feel that every time it is sung in church and any nonbeliever is present, that they are getting the gospel in its entirety by simply following along with the song.  It brings tears to my eyes and I praise the Lord for John Newton and his heart to exclaim the grace of God through out the world.  He has done so in creating this hymn, Amazing Grace, and it has literally become the song that represents Christianity, specifically evangelical Protestant Christianity.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me….
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.

T’was Grace that taught…
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear…
the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares…
we have already come.
T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far…
and Grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me…
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be…
as long as life endures.

When we’ve been here ten thousand years…
bright shining as the sun.
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise…
then when we’ve first begun.

“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me….
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.”

We Are Not What You Give Us, But You See Us As Such. Amen

I’m preaching tomorrow at Trinity Community Church and my sermon is on Second Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” What a wonderful verse to meditate on and be able to give an exposition to those in attendance Sunday morning. With out going too much into it, this is one of those verses that has been solace to me in my struggle that is the Christian walk. My continuous falling and my sinful shortcomings are enough to make me quit everyday, if it were up to me that is. But i thank the Lord that my salvation is found in Him and when I think on this verse I become incredibly grateful for His gift to me, a gift which i could never produce on my own account, that is Righteousness. I am sinful and will always be a sinful being until the day I die. But because of the promise contained in verse 21 I can keep on walking this walk resting on the grace, the gift that is Christ. That God made Christ to be sin, which means that Christ took on my sin and my punishment. Christ was not sinful while dieing on the cross but was perfectly righteous and pure in and of himself, he had to be. But my sin was credited or imputed to him and He therefore suffered for me in my place under the wrath of the Father. This incredible act on the cross was what made God a just God, a God who can punish sin. But He is at the same time a loving God who is able to justify his fallen creation as well. How? While my sins were imputed to Christ on the cross, Christ’s Righteousness, his righteousness, was credited or imputed to me the sinner. In and of my self I am a fallen sinner, but God the Father no longer sees that. He sees Christ in my stead, He sees the righteousness that was Christ’s credited to my account. Why? Because I have, through faith, accepted this gracious gift of God. I hold on to Jesus on the cross in full assurance of faith that I am now righteous before God, a God who must punish sin and sinners. My punishment was taken by Christ, so God can no longer hold me accountable, He has credited to me in the same breath of graciousness, a righteousness not my own, that of Christ. How wonderful a gift and promise we have for those who believe. Do you believe? Have you trusted Christ for this gift of salvation? If not consider the alternative of living a life in perfect obedience, never sinning, always obeying. Can you do it, have you done it? Then repent of trusting in your self, repent of trusting in the goodness you think you can bring God and look only to Christ. He is your salvation, He is your righteousness. All praise and glory goes to Him who has done what was impossible. Amen.

Justification and Our Remembrance of Christ in Communion

      Christians, let us look to Christ once again this morning.  As we partake together of the bread and the cup, symbolically remembering what Christ once and for all accomplished for us on the cross. That is, He hung on a cross dieing with our sins being cast onto Him therefore incurring God’s wrath in our stead.  As a church, we are a people made up of sinners who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, accepting Him as our sacrifice, a sacrifice which has appeased Gods furious wrath.  If that statement does not pertain to you, if you have not believed in the historical Jesus and trusted in His death and resurrection for your salvation from Hell, then please, with fear and trembling, consider your fate and your need for repentance.  But do not partake of the bread and juice this morning, for these symbols represent a fate that belongs only to the Justified.  It is our Justification before God that allows us to even approach God without being destroyed for our sin.  The fact is, is that we take these symbols of communion as fallen sinners.  Yet we are sinners who have been called by God to repentance and have laid hold of Christ in faith.  Because of our faith in Christ, in His unfair death and His glorious resurrection, God has graciously declared us Righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 clearly says that “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

In a marvelous work of grace, God has put our sin onto Christ and has in the same breath imputed Christ’s perfect righteousness to us and therefore no longer see us as we are, as sinners, but sees us as Christ. What an incredible truth to hold onto this morning.  Were it not for this declarative act of God, declaring us as righteous, our attempt at Worship this morning would futile.  Martin Luther said it this way that in being Justified, Christ “has made His righteousness my righteousness, and my sin His sin. If He has made my sin to be His sin, then I do not have it and I am free. If He has made His righteousness my righteousness, then I am righteous now with the same righteousness as He.”  This understanding causes us to do a number of things.  It should first and foremost cause us to look to Christ in thankful remembrance, holding on to Him with all our strength, knowing that it is Christ alone who saves.  Second, it should cause us to let go of our good works knowing that there is nothing we could bring to the table to satisfy God’s anger, echoing Paul when he says that the Just shall live by faith.  It is Christ that has saved us, not our good works, even if those good works are ascribed to the grace of God in your life, they will not save for God only sees Christ in your stead.  Lastly, this should produce in us a love so deep for our savior and redeemer Jesus Christ, a love that results in selfless worship and humble sacrifice.

As you prepare your hearts before our Lord, be sure to keep Christ constantly at the forefront of your meditation.  Your sins were what put Him to death, and it is His righteousness that has given you life, eternal life.

 

 “Those whom, God effectually calls he also freely justifies, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God”
 Westminster Confession of Faith, Ch 11

Increase Our Faith

How wonderful the Christian walk, how beautiful the saints struggle to continually get up after each fall.  It is a comforting miracle the grace God has given to those who rest in Christ Jesus.  I read this morning Luke 17 and my eyes caught verse 5 in where the apostles ask of Christ, “Increase our faith.”

Yes God! Please, increase our faith.  Give me more each morning Your grace, the choicest of Your virtues, saving faith.  Let me constantly asses and test my faith and look for its authenticity.  You said my faith shall save me, it will heal me.  The righteous shall live by faith.  Now I know that  it is Christ that has saved, that has healed.  I know it is Christ’s righteousness, not infused in me, but imputed to me.  It is Christ alone that saves.  Yet You have given the virtue of faith for being the vehicle of salvation.  Lord, if You have bestowed such an honor to faith than I must seek it out more and more.  Father, my faith has saved me yet I know I must grow in it, I must cling to Christ more, tighter, stronger!  If the Apostles were in need to ask, “increase our faith,” I am doubly in need.  Father give me please more.  Do not just sustain it, do not just keep it, but give me more, increase my faith.  Spurgeon said this of our faith and I echo this as well, that “Christian men are saved by progress: constantly going onwards will keep the Christian alive. If it were possible for me to stop, I know not where my life would be. The Christian must be going onward; for the arrow will mount while still it is in progress, but it stalls the moment the power stops that keeps it aloft. So the apostle said unto the Lord, ‘increase our faith.'” Thank you Lord for your promise of salvation, from beginning to end.  That You will not loose us, that You have secured us.  Keep me Father as You have kept your promises and do so right now with more faith in my heart, I beg of you.  I want to see you more, seek you harder, read your Word more clearly, tell the world of your love more passionately.  I love you  and that is only possible by your gift of faith.  Let me love you and enjoy you more, giving you all glory, forever and ever.  My God and provider, provider of a faith in your most wonderful gift of salvation, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Off to Reno

It’s about 6:30 Sunday morning.  I feel more awake than usual.  I’m off to church soon and then I’m catching my plane to Reno, Nevada afterwards.  Yesterday Jon and Elizabeth Master gave me an early birthday/Christmas present.  Octavius Winslow’s No Condemnation in Christ Jesus.  What an awesome gift to get. (and not just because it has another cool Banner of Truth cover that I’m always so fond of.) I started in to it last night…..I was blown away by this guys writing.  It’s like poetry for your soul.  The whole book, if you haven’t guessed yet, is on Romans Eight.  My trip to Reno is going to be filled with some great reading today.

I’ll post some more when I get in tonight. Ciao.

Man in the Desert Theory

I have been teaching through the book of Romans with my Church’s youth and have been going ever so slowly through each weeks study. We’ve spent a little more than two months, with a bible study occurring just once every week, just to get to Romans chapter 3:1. The reason for our slow pace is that first, I want my kids to really understand both the flow & outline of the letter as well as the themes that arise, and considering that Paul packs so much meaning and content into such a small space, extra time is therefore required to really grasp what Paul is addressing. Secondly, I’ve been reading through D. Martyn Lloyd Jones’ commentary on Romans which, if you’ve seen it or read it before, you know is 14 volumes long. His slow pace and careful analysis of each text has definitely encouraged me to take my time and make sure I’m not rushing through what is actually key important material. (Of course every word which is inspired by God deserves the utmost care and time.)

We just finished chapter two last week and had spent quite a good deal of time on verses 12 through 16 where the context of the passage is dealing with everyones condemnation in sin, both Jew and Gentile. No one is absent from the curse of the Law because everyone lives as if there is a law but yet still breaks it.

Undoubtedly, one of the number one question that is asked more often than any other by Christian youth around America is the “Man in the Desert” theory. It goes like this, “But what if there’s a man in the desert who has never heard the Gospel, who has never heard about God, where does he go?” It gets asked in different variations, I’m sure children that actually live in the desert ask about the guy in the jungle, or maybe a deserted island, but the same motive is always behind the question. They think that it is unfair, even unfair of God, to let this person go to hell. “This can not be our God” they think, “there must be a reasonable answer that will ease my conscience and let this guy into heaven.” Quickly goes there confidence in the exclusivity of Christ as our only salvation and not yet have they grasped the seriousness and universality of sin.

Suffice to say , we worked through this “dilemma” and are now ready to move on to the next section in the book, but my reason for posting this is that I wanted to relay to you a quote that I read from Lloyd-Jones on this “Man in the Desert” theory. (I think I’ve coined a new term.) It is really good and very worth quoting.

“What then is the position of the pagan people who have never heard the gospel at all? How are they saved? By what are they saved? The simple answer to that question is that it is neither raised nor considered at all in this parenthesis. (Romans 2:13-17) It is not even hinted at. Let me say it once more. This whole section is not concerned at all about the way of salvation; it is simply concerned about the matter of condemnation. Therefore it is important to realize that there is not a shred of evidence in this parenthesis which bears on the position of these pagans ho have never heard the Christian gospel.

‘But’, people say, ‘we are concerned about this. Are they, who have never heard the gospel at all, to be condemned?’ Well there is a very definite answer to that question. They are condemned, but they are not condemned for not obeying the gospel. They are condemned for not obeying the moral consciousness that is within them. They have the work of the law written in their heart and they do not obey it, they do not come up to it, so they are condemned by that. But they are no more condemned than anyone else. Not condemned, I repeat, for rejecting the gospel, which they have never heard, but condemned equally and quite as definitely by their failure to conform to the dictates of the moral consciousness that is within them. So, you see, there is nothing unfair about their position either.

‘But what of their salvation?’ you say. Well, there is only one thing to say about that – salvation is possible only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It has always been possible only in and through Him….’What about the people who have never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is that fair?’ Ah! We are dealing now with the kind of question which should never be asked. That is the kind of question that makes Paul say, in Romans chapter nine, ‘O man, who art thou that repliest against God?'[v.20]. But let me put a question to you. You ask me about these Gentiles who have never heard the Gospel, who have never had an opportunity, and who, we have said, are under condemnation. But what about all the Gentiles during the centuries before the Lord Jesus Christ ever came into this world? They had never heard about Him. They did not have the Jewish Law. They did not know about these ordinances. God gave the law only to this one nation, He did nothing about the others. How do you answer that? It is exactly the same question. There were all those centuries with millions of pagans outside Israel who had none of this teaching. What of them?

And you see there is only one answer – we do not know.”

There is much more that Jones has to say about this, but this quote is a nice quick analysis of his overall answer. It is in my estimation a very serious thing to remember that Christ is the only way, truth and life, that no one can get to the Father but through Him. To know this is to have full ammunition to want to evangelize and share the Gospel. God has blessed us in giving us part in His salvation plan, using us to give the call, offer His good news, to proclaim His commandment of repent and believe. All are without hope, dead in sin. Lets get to workin’.

Grace: Two Birds with One Stone?

I cried for the first time today in long long while. The events leading up to my tear drenched breakdown were quite sudden and unexpected. I began the day actually quite uplifted and excited, I just began a new book by the great D.A. Carson and I knew I had a pretty uneventful day ahead of me which makes me happy to know that I can then spend it in a book and just relax. I enjoyed a cup up of coffee while reading Carson’s word study on the Greek work charismata and then prepared to take a trip out to the church office in order to get the bulletins for the Church Sunday Service printed and folded. What followed was a storm of confusion and questioning that knocked my pleasant day attitude right out of me. I received a voice mail from a very close family member which was completely meant to insult and break me down, and where I usually would not put too much weight and value into those comments, this time it seemed to ring louder and truer and puncture my soul like a hot knife to butter. I then, due to the call, began to take a deep look at what has been happening in my life recently and I felt incredibly overwhelmed at the projects, bills, relationships, work, and chores that needed to be addressed and worked on. In short I felt low. I felt that if life were a game, a sport, that I would be the guy that just could not play well, that consistently I am getting cut from the team. With this ugly cloud looming over my head and heart and then another phone call from a completely different family member ending in what seemed to be a very selfish and unhealthy fight between us, I began to cry out to God and cry I did. I felt exceedingly sad as well as angry at my own actions. Life sucked and I couldn’t fully understand why, so I cried out to God why.

After that episode and after I finished my work I then made a much needed stop at the house of my good friend Bill. Now the nature of Bill’s house is always quite consistent: there are always people stopping through. Bill’s house is essentially a coffee house (in tonights case, a tea house) with free coffee and always good company with really good conversation. Tonight was no exception.

I was the first to arrive in what would eventually and arbitrarily be a group of six young gentlemen sitting around the kitchen table discussing some pretty important, actually the most important, issues of life. One of the guys, whom I respect a lot, brought a new fellow over who was new to the Bill’s Coffee House scene. We’ll call the new guy Brian. After a couple of minutes of small talk and all of us getting our Tea ready, we soon discovered that Brian came from an interesting religious background that was not at all orthodox in its hold to essential Christianity and that his life so far had been a life not understanding the core beliefs of real Christianity. He was without the gospel. The next hour and a half consisted of my self and the other guys seated there discussing and lovingly presenting the good news of Christ as a gift of grace of salvation from God’s wrath toward us, mankind, due to our incessant sinful reaction to God as fallen people. The most amazing thing, really the most miraculous thing about it was that Brian seemed very open to what we were offering him and seemed to consider very somberly the message we relayed. Really, the five of us there that were Christian were in continuous silent prayer for Brian’s heart and Gods grace in his life. The night was essentially spent in talking about and praying for grace, God’s Grace.

But here is where I must confess the beauty of God in all of this. After the night was over and I got into my Geo Prizm to head home for the night, I of course began to pray about what had happened at Bill’s kitchen table. The first thing that came out of my mouth was not a prayer of intercession (me praying on Brian’s behalf) but a prayer of thanks! I could not help but thank my God for giving me this opportunity to share what I love and hold so dear, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this opportunity was a means for Brian to hear the most important message he will ever hear and that in and of its self is completely of God’s good grace, that deservedly Brian, as well as all of us, should only hear the condemning judgment of God, but God in His love and goodness and mercy, saw it right to bring the Gospel to Brian this cold winter night at Bill’s house. That is incredibly gracious. But what blows my mind is how God used this instance to minister to me, to encourage me, to bring me back to Him, all in one swoop. How glorious a God! I was in the throws of selfish depression and God, like the wonderful Father He is, allowed me to give the Gospel when I wasn’t even looking to do it. In the end my worship goes to Him in complete thankfulness for knocking down two birds (myself and Brian) with one stone….grace…yes,Christ, is a solid stone. Sola Gratia! Soli Deo Gloria!