Attempting to Change Without Christ

"No one can truly change who does not know and rely on gifts from the hand of the Lord. Since Christ is both Giver and Gift, attempts to change without grace are barren of the very purpose, power, and Person that change is about. Self-manufactured change does not dislodge almighty me from the center of my tiny self-manufactured universe. Still in the futility of my mind and the hardness of my heart, I only act a bit different.

Successful living without grace describes mere self-reformation: get your act together, save your marriage, get off your duff and get a job. Failure in living describes failed self-efforts: when you can’t get a grip, you despair. Christ-less, grace-less attempts at change conclude either with the praise of your own glory or with your shame." -David Powlison

The Danger of Moralistic Parenting

Elyse Fitzpatrick has written a fantastic article on Christ-centered parenting over at the resurgence blog. Check it out here.

The Glory of the Gospel

"The glory of the gospel is that God has declared Christians to be rightly related to him in spite of their sin. But our greatest temptation and mistake is to try to smuggle character into his work of grace. 

How easily we fall into the trap of assuming that we remain justified only so long as there are grounds in our character for our justification. But Paul's teaching is that nothing we do ever contributes to our justification." 

-Sinclair Ferguson via: Z

A Message of Breathtaking Freedom

“The gospel of grace is a message of breathtaking freedom. It must be embraced with faith and thanksgiving. You are thoroughly accepted just as you are.

Jesus Christ is your righteousness and he is never going to change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. When you wake tomorrow, he will still be your righteousness, before you have done anything to enjoy God’s favor. You have to earn nothing.

Your spirit needs to bask in the brilliant sunlight of this reality. You need to know it inwardly and celebrate it on a daily basis.” - Terry Virgo HT: OFI

The LORD Reigns

Sing to the LORD a new song; 

sing to the LORD, all the earth. 

Sing to the LORD, praise his name; 

proclaim his salvation day after day. 

Declare his glory among the nations, 

his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise... 

Splendor and majesty are before him; 

strength and glory are in his sanctuary...

ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 

Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name... 

Worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness; 

tremble before him, all the earth. 

Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns..." 

Psalms 96 NIV

What Abortion?

Tullian Tchividjian, one of my favorite Bible teachers, writes:

Rod Rosenbladt told me when we were together at the recent Gospel Coalition conference in Chicago ... a story about a middle-aged woman who needed help from her pastor.

She went to her pastor and said, “Pastor, you know that I had an abortion a number of years ago?”  
“Yes,” the Pastor replied.  

“Well, I need to talk to you about the man I’ve since met.”  

“Alright,” replied the Pastor.

“Well, we met a while back, and started dating and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. Then things got more serious between us and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. A while later we got engaged and I thought, I need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. Then we got married and I thought, I really need to tell him about the abortion. But I just couldn’t. So I needed to talk to someone, Pastor, and you’re it.”

The Pastor replied, “You know, we have a service for this. Let’s go through that together.” So they did – a service of confession and absolution.

When they were finished, she said to him, “Now I think I have the courage to tell my new husband about my abortion.  Thanks, Pastor.”

And the Pastor replied to her, “What abortion?” ...

[What] all of us need to remember every day is that Christ offers forgiveness full and free from both our self-righteous goodness and our unrighteous badness. This is the hardest thing for us to believe as Christians. We think it’s a mark of spiritual maturity to hang onto our guilt and shame. We’ve sickly  concluded that the worse we feel, the better we actually are. The declaration of Psalm 103:12 is the most difficult for us to grasp and embrace: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” Or, as Corrie ten Boom once said, “God takes our sins—the past, present, and future—and dumps them in the sea and puts up a sign that says ‘No Fishing allowed.’”

I know this seems too good to be true, but it’s true. No strings attached. No but’s. No conditions. No need for balance. If you are a Christian, you are right now under the completely sufficient imputed righteousness of Christ. Your pardon is full and final. In Christ, you’re forgiven. You’re clean. It is finished.

What abortion?

Gospel Quotes

Erik Raymond has compiled a great list of gospel quotes. Here are a few that I appreciated:

“There is nothing attractive about the gospel to the natural man; the only man who finds the gospel attractive is the man who is convicted of sin.” (Oswald Chambers)

“A gospel that elevates man and dethrones God is not the gospel.” (Will Metzger)

“The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

“The gospel is not ‘God loves us,’ but ‘God loves us at the cost of his Son.’” (Derek Thomas)

“The gospel begins and ends with what God is, not what we want or think we need.” (Tom Houston)

“When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed.” (C.H. Spurgeon)

We Need Not Work For God's Love

Harold Senkbeil writes:

"Our Heavenly Father attaches no strings to His love. His love for us doesn’t depend on our love for others. Our relationship with the Father was established long ago, in the body and blood of His Son.

Jesus Christ erased all our sins and shouldered all our sorrows. Already now we have a solid relationship with our heavenly Father; there’s no need to fret about it. That relationship doesn’t depend on our love for Him, but on His love for us. It hinges on the Gospel of God, not the Law of God…Again, the Old Adam betrays us. Our sinful nature would much rather hear Law than Gospel. The sinful nature is a seasoned do-it-yourselfer. We’d rather know what we should do; yet God insists on telling us who we are.

The best way to tell you what to do as a Christian is to tell you who you are in Christ. The sinful nature likes to think it can earn (and keep) God’s favor. Our Old Adam prefers to base security with God the Father on His Law rather than His Gospel."

HT: Tullian

The Total Sovereignty of God and The Free Will of Man

For centuries there has been a debate within the church regarding the extent of God’s sovereignty in relation to salvation. Brilliant thinkers and scholars have disagreed on whether man is responsible for choosing God for eternal salvation, or whether God first chooses man for salvation. Indeed, the problem of free will …  has puzzled the greatest minds for centuries (Kane). 

If humans are free than how can God be sovereign? On the other hand, if God is in control, how can human choices be real? In what sense can we be held responsible for actions if God is responsible for everything? A tension certainly exists, and a scholarly consensus has yet to be reached in regards to this doctrine. Some have taught that man has a free will that is capable of either choosing or rejecting the gospel, while others, such as Martin Luther, have proposed that “man has no free will, but is a captive, servant and bondservant, either to the will of God, or to the will of Satan.”

Both approaches have been represented well by strong believers, however, one view must be right, and one view must be wrong. Either God chooses man, or man chooses God. Either man is autonomous, or man is subject to the will of God. The implications of where a Christian falls on this issue are life-changing.

Mission Accomplished

"When Jesus came to this earth, He came to reveal the Father to men and to make an atonement for the sins of men... Everything He came to do, He accomplished. 

There are many who have big plans and lofty goals, but few achieve them, and none achieve them perfectly. None but Jesus, that is. 

Jesus came to this earth to reveal the Father to men, to proclaim the Father’s word to men, and to procure the salvation of those whom the Father had given to Him. This He accomplished, every part of it. And even the apparent failure of Judas was a part of the plan of God, determined in eternity past. Jesus does all things well. What He came to earth to do, He did. And because of it, we do well to hear and to heed Him." -Bob Deffinbaugh

Jesus is the True and Better...

HT: Chosen For Grace

God's Sovereignty and the Valley of Death

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. -Psalms 23:4

Do you ever have those valley of death moments, days, or even years? Is your stomach ever so sick that you need to vomit, yet you can't? Nothing will come out because it is a soul sickness, not a sickness due to poor health. Do you ever question how you will make it through the day? I have those moments, I feel that sickness, and I ask those questions.

I Found This Haunting

Michael Horton writes:

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? 

Over half a century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. 

Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia (the city where Barnhouse pastored), all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached.

HT: Tullian

Book Recommendation: King's Cross by Tim Keller

Without question, my favorite living author is Tim Keller. To me, he is the modern day equivalent of C. S. Lewis (as many have noted before).

Each of his books, in their own way, has shifted my thinking greatly. Each one approaches the gospel from a different and fresh perspective. If you haven't already read The Reason for God, Counterfeit Gods, Prodigal God, and Generous Justice, you should. Read them all. They are fantastic. You can skip on Ministries of Mercy, as it is Keller's first book and the weakest of the bunch.

Due to my affinity towards the author, my expectations were extremely high when I picked up King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus. Fortunately, I was not disappointed. 

King's Cross is a beautiful, learned, and artistic exposition of the Gospel of Mark. Every page is saturated with the gospel, and Keller's insights are world class. Honestly, I felt as if the book were a commentary highlight reel. 

Truly, King's Cross is a genuine treasure which I highly recommend. Read it and be blessed by the simple, yet profound gospel of Jesus Christ.

Every Story Whispers His Name

Tullian Tchividjian writes:

Contrary to what many Christians believe, the Bible does not tell two stories: the story of Israel (or law) in the Old Testament and the story of the church (or grace) in the New Testament.

No, the Bible tells one story and points to one figure: it tells the story of how God rescues a broken world and points to Christ as the rescuer.

Jesus at the center of both Testaments

In the Old Testament, God reveals himself through types and shadows, through promises and prophecies. In the New Testament, God reveals himself in Christ, who is the substance of every shadow and the fulfillment of every promise and prophecy. The Old Testament predicts God’s rescuer; the New Testament presents God’s rescuer. In all of its pages and throughout all of its stories, the word of the Lord reveals the Lord of the Word. 

The plotline of the Bible, in other words, is Jesus-centered. He is the rescuer sent by God to right all wrongs, mend all that is broken, and reconcile separated, fallen human beings like you and me to God.

The Bible tells one story and points to one figure: it tells the story of how God rescues a broken world and points to Christ as the rescuer.

Read the rest here.

"True faith takes its character and quality from its object and not from itself. Faith gets a man out of himself and into Christ. Its strength therefore depends on the character of Christ. Even those of us who have weak faith have the same strong Christ as others!" -Sinclair Ferguson

"If every event has a cause, then so do free human choices; God is the First Cause of everything; therefore, God must be the First Cause of our free choices." -Jonathan Edwards

Another Video Showcasing Our God's Creativity

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. -I Chronicles 29:11