Imputed Righteousness

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. - Romans 5:19 

The Best News That You Will Ever Hear

"If we are in Christ and He is in us, then God the Father reckons each of us in the exact condition spiritually that Jesus Christ is in at the present time." - E. Martin

How He Loves: A Song Story

"If God's power is made perfect in weakness, why do we spend so much time trying to appear strong?" - Shai Linne

Free Music Recommendation: 'through hymn'

Owen Strachan clued me in on this guys awesome work. He writes: 

"[through hymn] specializes in hip-hop on church history.  You never know what to expect with under-the-radar rappers.  It took me one listen, though, to know that Through Hymn is the real deal.  He is an excellent rapper.  His production is polished and sharp, and his content is straight-up historical theology and church history, with a decidedly pro-Reformation bent.  Yet another album that proves in abundance that Christians can use rap for edification and pleasure."

You won't find many Presbyterian rappers out there, and that is what sets through hymn apart. His theology is solid and the content is weighty. His entire album is free to download. Check it out here, then spread the word if you like him.

Here is a Great Quote by Blaise Pascal

"There are only two kinds of men; the righteous who believe themselves sinners, and the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous." 

Westminster Confession: Christ Alone

"The principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace." via Joe Thorn

Horton: Preaching a Christ Who Saves

"Regardless of the official theology held on paper, moralistic preaching (the bane of conservatives and liberals alike) assumes that we are not really helpless sinners who need to be rescued but decent folks who need good examples, exhortations, and instructions.” 

Be Perfect - Part 3 of 3 (Jesus Was)

Jesus Was. Jesus Is. Jesus Did.

Romans 8:3 - For God has done what the law (You must), weakened by the flesh, could not do (You can’t). By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh (Jesus did).
What you are required to do and what you can’t do - Christ did.
Jesus met the standard on our behalf. He climbed the unclimbable heights for us. He was “tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (Heb. 4:15). He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father both passively and actively.
Now, if you are in Christ you are “perfect as our heavenly father is perfect.” The very righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you.
The good news is not that the law is relaxed by Jesus in the New Testament - the good news is that the law is perfectly fulfilled by Him. This is the Christian message. This is the gospel.
So come to him all you who are weary, tired, and burned out, and he will give you rest. Embrace the freedom that Christ is offering. Bathe in his intoxicating grace. Dwell on what he has done for you. Feast at the table he has prepared for you. Let that heavy yoke of trying to earn his favor fall from your shoulders. In Christ, you have his favor. In Christ, you are right with God. In Christ, you are blessed beyond measure.
So rest. Rest in that he did what we could not do for ourselves. He lived the life we could not live and died the death that we should have died. He was perfect. Now, through faith in Christ alone, that perfection is ours.
I have no better words for you than these: You Must. You Can't. Jesus Did.

The question is, can you let grace have the final word, or will you add a "but"? I know it's not natural and feels too good to be true, but let Christ's work be enough. Let grace win the day in your life. You Must. You Can't. Jesus Did - no "but" is required.

Be Perfect - Part 2 of 3 (You Can't)

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

You Can’t 

This should come as no surprise to you, but we can't "be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect." We will fail. We simply can’t, in our fallen condition, perfectly live out our faith and be holy. 

Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, sets up an impossible barrier to works salvation. There is an unattainable standard here - a mountain that we simply cannot scale. What he is doing here is crushing us with law, and paving the way for the gospel. 

Martin Lloyd-Jones writes, “The Sermon on the Mount… comes to us and says, 'There is the mountain that you have to scale, the heights you have to climb; and the first thing you must realize, as you look at that mountain which you are told you must ascend, is that you cannot do it, that you are utterly inca­pable in and of yourself, and that any attempt to do it in your own strength is proof positive that you have not understood it.”

When we come to the end of ourselves, we die – and this is good. Jesus is calling us to die so that he can resurrect us. This is right where Jesus wants us to be. Again, Matthew 5:48 is not a gospel passage, it is a law passage. It is there to drive us to Christ in desperation. 

We need a savior, not a life coach.

The only hope that any of us have of meeting his requirement to "be perfect" is that someone "be perfect" on our behalf and give that record to us. What we need is what the Reformers called an “alien righteousness.” 

Continued in Part 3...

Be Perfect - Part 1 of 3 (You Must)

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).

You Must

Have you ever had anyone tell you: “I like the God of the New Testament, but I’m not a fan of this mean God from the Old Testament with his rules and laws. I like the love and grace of Jesus, not the law of God the Father?” I've said that.

I used to think that Jesus was the nice God and God the Father was the authoritarian mean God. Jesus was the hippie and the Father was the drill sergeant.

Then one day I started actually reading Jesus’ words and said “Wait a minute here, this guy is saying some hard stuff!.”

I began to read and see that he was requiring a lot from me. In fact, I would read where Jesus clarified the Father’s rules – he didn’t eliminate them or disregard them.

Yes, it’s true that Jesus talked about love, but he also made a lot of demands. In fact, he took things farther in the NT than Moses and the Prophets did in the OT.

How many times in the Sermon on the Mount does Jesus say, “You’ve heard it said, but I say…?”

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel is absolutely brutal. It is not good news. Christ raises the standard ridiculously high.

He states that our righteousness must exceed the Pharisees (vs. 20), we are not allowed to be angry (vs. 22), if we lust in our hearts we have committed adultery in the eyes of God (vs. 28), and we must love our enemies (vs. 44). Then, Christ sums up the chapter with this statement: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (vs. 48).”

That is an outrageous demand to make. Where’s nice Jesus? Where is free-loving hippie Jesus?

Pentecost writes, “How good does a man have to be to please God? Christ’s answer was, “As good as God is.”

A not-guilty verdict depends on sinlessness. God demands perfection – not progress. This is bad news. Matthew 5:48 is not a gospel passage. If the gauge of righteousness is absolute perfection, what hope is there for anyone? We are in trouble.

Thankfully, the law isn’t the final word.

Continued in Part 2…

Justin Buzzard: Devastating Grace

"We sing about amazing grace. But before grace is amazing, it’s devastating.

Grace, the message and work of Jesus, devastates our pride.

Grace devastates all our attempts to earn favor with God and others. Grace is a wrecking ball to the foundation of self-effort that we’ve built our lives upon.

Grace destroys you—the old you. For their to be new life, there must be a death. Grace brings that death in order to bring that life." (source)

Johnny Cash: The Man in White

HT: MB

"The closer we walk with God, the more will it work in us self-abasement and humiliation and not self-complacency and pride.” - A.W. Pink

“A low view of law always produces legalism; a high view of law makes a person a seeker after grace.” J. Gresham Machen

“God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does” - Martin Luther