Wholly of Grace
“Salvation is wholly of grace, not only undeserved but undesired by us until God is pleased to awaken us to a sense of our need of it. And then we find everything prepared that our wants require or our wishes conceive; yea, that He has done exceedingly beyond what we could either ask or think.
Salvation is wholly of the Lord and bears those signatures of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness which distinguish all His works from the puny imitations of men. It is every way worthy of Himself, a great, a free, a full, a sure salvation.
It is great whether we consider the objects (miserable, hell-deserving sinners), the end (the restoration of such alienated creatures to His image and favor, to immortal life and happiness) or the means (the incarnation, humiliation, sufferings and death of His beloved Son). It is free, without exception of persons or cases, without any conditions or qualifications, but such as He, Himself, performs in them and bestows upon them.”
- John Newton, “The Consolation”, Works of John Newton: Vol III (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985), 32
The Serious Error of Decisional Evangelism
The more I study God’s word and the more I seek to know Him more, the more I am so burdened for the church in America. We have become so man centered and so activity focused in our churches that we have all but left the glorious gospel of God behind or set the gospel up on a shelf for all to admire from a distance only to be shadowed by “bigger and more important things.”Over twenty years ago I went through the motions of repeating a prayer from a pastor as I walked a long isle. Like a magic mantra, I repeated the words of my preacher, was baptized shortly after, and was told subsequently that I was saved. I had no understanding of sin, repentance, the holiness of God, the justice of God or my condition as a sinner. I was told to simply repeat a prayer. While it was an emotional experience it was not one that was wrought by the Spirit of God through repentance and faith. I am so grateful that my God did later save me. He transformed by heart of stone to a heart of flesh and my faith is not in a decision. My faith is not even in my faith. My faith is an ongoing faith in the person and work of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that faith is a precious gift from my God - the God that for most of my life I lived in horrendous rebellion. Despite that hellish rebellion, He saved me. That my friend is amazing grace.
Book Review: The Great Exchange
It is so refreshing to read a book that exalts Christ on every single page and lifts the glorious doctrines of the substitutionary, vicarious, penal atonement of Christ from Scripture. It seems these days that you have to dig to the bottom shelf at the back of your local Christian bookstore to find anything worth reading.
This excellent book, The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness by Jerry Bridges & Bob Bevington, is an absolute joy to read. The forward by Sinclair Ferguson, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church right here in my hometown of Columbia, SC is a magnificent read in itself.
Bridges & Bevington walk through the doctrine of the substitutionary death of Christ chapter by chapter by isolating it in different books of the Bible. The book opens with a great introduction and overview of the doctrine then shows how the apostles themselves summarized the substitutionary death of Christ in their writings. Following that is an excellent overview of Christ’s atoning cross-work as found in the Old Testament.
The authors then take you through a well written, theologically sound and very reformed overview of the substitutionary death found in the New Testament Scriptures as found in Romans, 1,2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1,2 Thessalonians, 1,2 Timothy, Titus, Hebrews (which is an extensive chapter), 1 Peter, 1 John and Revelation.
The writing is engaging and written at a level that both the layperson and the well-read theologian will both admire. From page to page is the exaltation of our Lord and Savior’s substitutionary death on the cross. The writers take time to exegete Scripture well and provide great historical context from each book.
I found one particular line in the book so well put considering the flood of prosperity preaching in the world today that tries so blasphemously to turn the cross into a means for material, worldly riches:
“Jesus offers no prosperity gospel. Christ is not a means to and end for the Christian - He is the end.” (Page 154)
I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to read a lot of good Christian books - many of the reformed flavor and this is one that will remain in arms reach on my bookshelf. Every Christian should read this book. Pastors today need desperately to return to the correct, Biblical understanding of the cross and books like “The Great Exchange” are a welcomed addition to the back of the Christian bookstores!
Download a pdf of the Foreward, Preface and Introduction.
Head on over to monergismbooks.com to order your copy today!
Atheists in the Foxholes - Who is the Real Enemy?
Perhaps you’ve been following the story of the “Atheist in the Foxhole” story which has taken an interesting turn this week:
“Army Specialist Dustin Chalker alleges that he was forced to participate in public prayers and that the military systematically violates the religious rights of its personnel. Chalker, who has served in Korea and Iraq, is the second soldier to file such a lawsuit with the help of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Both lawsuits say that the military permits religious discrimination by fundamentalist Christians who try to force their views on others, especially subordinates. Chalker’s lawsuit lists 18 examples, including presentations at service academies that criticize Islam and functions he was required to attend where Christian prayers mentioned Jesus.”
So my question is this: is Chalker, a self-admitted atheist, truly concerned about the Army criticizing Islam, or does he just want to attack Christianity? If he is a supporter of Islam, maybe he should stay in Iraq (where he is currently stationed) and convert (from atheism – that’s an interesting thought…) to Islam. There may very well be 72 virgins in his future…
I believe people like Chalker just want to make a name for themselves and try to be so ‘hip it hurts” by claiming to be an atheist. The Bible calls them fools and who am I to argue with the word of God?
However, if he is suing the Army and citing 18 examples, among which one is academics that criticize Islam…. And Christian prayer that mentions Jesus – I do believe we have polar opposites here.
I actually went to the website for the foundation of Atheists in the Foxhole. I was curious to see how many “men” and women would support such an organization. It appears that roughly 25 or so nationally are signed up as members. As usual, these type of groups are like a Chihuahua, small yet yippy.
I am sure that Chalker will make the circuit of the news talk shows – he will probably land on Oprah eventually (she will be sure to welcome him with open arms) but I truly hope that he finds this blog – because I have one question for him and it is this- When you signed up to defend this country, just who did you determine to be real enemy? If you answered anyone except the enemy within, you are WRONG my friend. You have lied to yourself so long that you don’t even know what the truth is anymore. There is one truth – and that is Jesus Christ – the subject of your lawsuit. If you have no faith to draw on, how can the men that rely on you as a team member in the armed service have faith in you?
The beauty of this is that Christians can live in the beauty of knowing that one day ALL knees will bow and ALL mouths will confess that Jesus Christ is LORD. The only problem for fools is that it will be too late.
13 Evangelist Phrases That Produce False Converts
Churches divide over carpet color, building additions and budgets. In the meantime, our fellow church members are going to hell by the boat load.
A.W. Tozer said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.”
D. James Kennedy said, “The vast majority of people who are members of churches in America today are not Christians. I say that without the slightest contradiction. I base it on empirical evidence of twenty-four years of examining thousands of people.”
Friend, we argue over so many petty things. May I suggest we have lost sight of the most important debate of all, “What is salvation?” My theology teaches that salvation happens when a man repents and places his trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).
I would like to present thirteen ways that we have re-defined how a person becomes a true convert. Have we done this intentionally? Certainly not. We have simply created lingo that has a grain of truth in Scripture, but it is so open to interpretation that the un-converted understand it in ways that lead to false conversions.
1. “Make Jesus your Lord and Savior.” We cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior, He is our Lord and Savior. We are living in rebellion to Him and He commands us to repent and trust Him.
2. “Ask Jesus into your heart.” Does Jesus come into our hearts? Yes He does. The question is, “How does He get in there?” It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.
3. “Just believe in Jesus.” The demons believe and they tremble. We must repent and trust.
4. “You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it.” We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing. Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.
5. “Accept Jesus.” Whoa. We need to accept Jesus? This is entirely backward. We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.
6. “Make a decision for Jesus.” Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver’s seat of salvation. When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us. That puts Him in the driver’s seat…where He demands.
7. “It is easy to believe.” While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy. It’s hard.
8. “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution. If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine. Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.
9. “Come to Jesus just as you are.” We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.
10. “Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage).” Jesus didn’t promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.
11. “Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace.” Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion? Yes. But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.
12. “Jesus is the missing piece.” Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.
13. “Jesus is better than fame and fortune.” That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting. Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill. He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God. Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.
If I showed up at your door with a can of grapefruit juice and a roll of paper towels and offered to change your oil, you would say, “No thanks.” If we wouldn’t let someone mess with our car using the wrong method, why do we allow the Gospel to be presented so ambiguously?
Would you let a doctor operate on your child who was “sort of” accurate? The salvation of men is far more important than an appendix.
I beg you to consider how you share the Gospel. You and I know what we are talking about when we use these phrases, but do the unregenerate? Is it possible that we have so many backsliders today because they never slid forward in the first place? Is it because they were never told that they must repent and trust?
If we are willing to debate shag verse plush in the fellowship hall, shouldn’t we be more concerned about an issue that has eternal consequences?
Author: Todd Friel
All-satisfying Reality in the Universe
If God’s glory is the only all-satisfying reality in the universe, then to try to do good for people, without aiming to show them the glory of God and ignite in them a delight in God, would be like treating fever with cold packs when you have penicillin.
—John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory, p. 36.
Voddie Baucham and Margaret Feinberg… sticking to the text
More about the supremacy of scripture and less about Palin. Voddie! Voddie!
The Shack - Take Two…
I’ve already posted a while back in May on my other blog on the problems with the popular book “The Shack” that so many professing believers claim to be a wonderful book. In fact, Eugene Peterson, author of the translation weak paraphrase “The Message” claimed it was equal to the classic book, “Pilgrim’s Progress”. I’m sorry, this book comes no where near the theological beauty of “Pilgrim’s Progress”. In fact, it’s at the complete other end of the spectrum with its heretical views of the Trinity.
Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says, “This book includes undiluted heresy.” It doesn’t get any clearer than that.
The real truth is that the endorsements of the book from popular musical artists and liberal Christians is just one more indication of the complete lack of spiritual discernment in our world and the condition of the church visible. Maybe pastors should spend more time preaching the gospel and less time endorsing junk like “The Purpose Driven Life” and “The Shack”. It’s so concerning to see the state of the majority of professing believers in America.
Tim Challies has written an update to his review of “The Shack” and it is an excellent, Biblical review. If you are a loved one has this book (and from what I hear some churches are handing this book out like they did the “Purpose Driven Drivel Life” I urge you to carefully read this excellent review.
So head on over to challies.com and check out the updated review. Tim has also provided his review in an elegant pdf format that you can send to your friends or maybe even your pastor.
Spectacles
As I have been reading for my Systematic Theology class, I came to a point in our discussion about the human limitations in our knowledge of God and the struggle to wrap our minds around His incommunicable attributes. I struggle a bit with taking the bounds of human language as something in which God can not communicate who He is. Yet, I see the limitations of the human “reasoning” simply because we do not hold certain attributes in which only a Transcendent and Immanent God has. Calvin is known to draw on the analogy of spectacles in comparison to how scripture works in this regard. It brings into better view the observations we make about the world around us and wrestling with doctrine such as the creation. I’m not too familiar with Calvin’s use of this analogy, but of course the writer in our systematic book refers to Genesis and Institutes as a starting point. He summarizes this concept by stating this: ” The Scriptures make plain to us what we otherwise would not see, just as spectacles enable us to overcome deficient vision.” 1
So, why do I bring this up. Sure I need to do a bit more research on Calvin’s use of this analogy and I plan to, but I note this issue simply because of the battle ragging over truth in our society today. Ideology was once described to me as a spectacle almost like a pair of glasses in which we look at the world. So in our world, we have many different pairs of glasses you can put on and look at the world through. The difference here between this definition of ideology and Calvin must be made clear. Calvin is using spectacle more like a focusing tool and the philosopher uses the spectacle as different shades of sunglasses.
Calvin is pointing out what I think is the beauty of how scripture strips away ideology and reveals what is truth. In other words, scripture is not a lens in which we gain a different perspective. It is a lens in which all is revealed for what the creator made it to be. Sunglasses don’t bring anything into focus, they simply keep things out of focus and even block out the piercing light the reveals. (i’m also thinking different colors here as well. I see the limitations of the analogy for ideology but I think it makes the stark difference even more clear) So speculation is something we are not at liberty to make with the lens of scripture. In order to see anything for what it truly is. Scripture must be the lens by which we bring into focus our surroundings.
As I work through systematic theology, I’m humbled by these topics. Yet I’m encouraged to know that God has sought after us in such a way that we may reverently draw close to Him as He makes himself known to us. John Piper once described the study, a bit like taking out the precious jewels of the faith and carefully curating them. (I don’t mean to botch his statements but I recall him saying something like this in one of his messages. If you have heard this message and have a more eloquent way of saying this please let me know) This is what I have taken this to be like. How magnificent is our God that we may know His name.
1: Akin, Daniel L. A Theology for the Church P.256
A World Vision
I recently had the joy of traveling out of the States to the “heart” of Europe. Whether you think it’s the heart of Europe or not, Slovakia is a beautiful country with open fields and rolling mountains… Any way, while we were there, our team spent nearly a week in the northern mountains running a English speaking camp for Slovak students. Though there are several stories and great things I could share about what God did in Slovakia and how he made himself known. I want to take this post to share my personal experience and the subtle impact it has had upon my life.
I’ve struggled pinning it down but this might be how I would describe it. This difference is something like a better view from the overlook of a mountain, a far greater understanding of the call for us to go. To see the need for His presence to be made known and to make it known. Yes, through teaching and sharing about him, but also through the care and time that he desires for our relationships daily whether abroad or at home. Sure, a month ago I would have agreed with that statement, that I believed all of that. Yet, when participating in an effort to go beyond our own land. Something about affirming a statement and not living it out or at least not yet to experience it doesn’t settle well with me. (Matthew 5-7 is something that came to mind)
It’s very easy to come back from such a trip and really feel like you’ve got some things figured out. I truly desire to be careful and intentional enough to let things simmer down a bit and for the realities of my “localized” community settle back in. Yet coming back was not the usual “spiritual high” experience for me. That makes me think of Psalm 33:10. He will ruin our plans and bring them to nothing. A humbling truth when we really think about his grip on our lives and his desire for the nations.
Though I’ve been called to live where I am now. The impact has been a new unsettled feeling, a desire to move forward with this new understanding. In other words a clearer view of the next step or a more focused perspective of the current stage of life I am called.
One of the most interesting lies that has been magnified by this trip for me was the idea we like to convince ourselves of “I’ve just had no desire to go and do that sort of thing”. This is a statement that I didn’t like before, but now even more so after going. It’s magnified itself in conversations. I don’t think we’re all meant to go to the tough places, and many of us might not be called out of our “mother land”. Yet, the statement above does not justify our lack of striving toward and wrestling with a greater vision of God’s desire to see people groups come to know Him. Think about Jonah… Sometimes, being pulled out of the comforts of our surroundings and into a completely different society is what God requires for us to be a part of what He is doing globally. Having God place us in a society with challenges that are either different or possibly greater than our homeland can transform us and make us seek after Him in new ways.
Now, before you think I’ve gotten on my high horse just after one mission trip. (Yes, this was my first to a foreign land) I want to be sure that you know I’m not trying to point the finger at the “American” church as a blanket statement to THE church. There are thousands that go every year and serve abroad. Yet I’m also not willing to say that we’ve got it right. No, there is much to do and I’m saddened that there is still too few who are willing to go to people groups that don’t know Jesus. I think to confirm either status would be foolish, though I’m more willing to vocalize the need for discipline within our churches because of it’s current slothful nature and unregenerate status. What I think is greater to point out is the need for us to be striving to see the world as He sees it and to go no matter what. (EASIER SAID THAN DONE)
For so long I’ve sat on the sidelines and have watched several of my friends go on trips and come back changed. (Though our personal transformation is not the entire impact of a trip, it does play a roll in our relationship with our God and the world.) They would come back different, striving for something I could not understand. They had gained a new world vision. Maybe I was jealous, because I never thought this was something I could do or would do. No, by saying this I’m not glorifying missions as a means to justify ourselves. BY NO MEANS! I know several devoted and godly christians who are not called out of their homeland. What I hope to emphasize is the great need for us to live in such a way that we reflect God’s heart for the nations. That we become devoted to our Lord’s calling that we strive to be obedient to His call regardless of “our” desire. To Love God and to Love Others.
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