John Dink: Cheap Law

This is so good:

“What Would Jesus Do?” Here is the costly answer: Jesus would do it all perfectly. And that’s game over for you. 

The Father is not grooming you to be a replacement for his Beloved Son. He is announcing that there is blessing for those who take shelter in his Beloved Son. Cheap law tells us that we’ve fallen, but there’s good news, you can get back up again. Therein lies the great heresy of cheap law: it is a false gospel. And it cheapens – no – it nullifies grace... 

Don’t you see? The Old Being will stop at nothing to get back to the old system. He will not mend his ways – the third time is not the charm! The demands cannot be used to sanctify any more than they could be used to save. They’re meant to reveal your nothingness and corner you before the Christ “who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification.”  

Cheap law will never quiet the self-righteous being because it invites him to keep haggling over what he can do apart from Jesus. And that is why law must be costly. It must always get to the heart of the matter. It’s not only murder that deserves death, but hate. It’s not only adultery that condemns, but lust. Not only theft, but coveting. It’s not only what is done with your hands that is judged, but what is done in your heart. And so – it should be clear – this is not “let’s make a deal.” The deals have been cut. The law of Moses is more than you can afford. The Son that God did not spare is priceless. The grace Jesus gives is free. That’s all there is. But cheap law keeps us searching for something to leverage against our poverty. Only costly law will bring that search to an end. It empties our pockets and opens our hands – revealing this: unless the religious expert becomes a beggar, he will not be given the kingdom. Costly law closes in on us and puts this prayer in our mouth: “Be merciful to me, a sinner.” Don’t you know, it’s only those who have been bankrupted by God’s costly law that are eligible for the riches of His grace? via Tullian

John Flavel: Christ is the Essence of all Delights

This is absolutely beautiful:

"Christ [is] the very essence of all delights and pleasures, the very soul and substance of them. As all the rivers are gathered into the ocean, which is congregation or  meeting-place of all  waters in the world: so Christ is that ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet. . . .

His excellencies are pure and unmixed; he is a sea of sweetness without one drop of gall." via JT

C. J. Mahaney: The Gospel Centered Life

"The Gospel isn’t one class among many that you’ll attend as a Christian—the gospel is the whole building that all the classes take place in! Rightly approached, all the topics you’ll study and focus on as a believer will be offered to you ‘within the walls’ of the glorious gospel." via RT

Robert Letham: Union with Christ

"Since we are united to Christ, God regards us in the identical way he does Christ. The Father treats us exactly the same way as he does his own eternal and beloved Son."

Sinclair Ferguson: Gospel Closure

"The determining factor of my existence is no longer my past. It is Christ's past."  

Michael Horton: Righteousness From God

"In the law, the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that condemns all of our pretenses of righteousness as "filthy rags."

But in the gospel, a righteousness from God, that is, a gift of righteousness is revealed."

Some of the Most Beautiful Words Ever Written

God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ

By grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. - Ephesians 2:4-9

Tullian Tchividjian & Jono Linebaugh: Growth in Grace

“Christian growth is forgetting about yourself.” - Gerhard Forde

Justin Holcomb: Grace All the Way

"There is a damaging idea floating around that says, "God saved you, now what are you going to do for him?" This is a recipe for failure. If you come to the Christian life believing you can do anything for God in your own strength or repay him on any level, you fall back to the self-dependent spiritual death from which Jesus saved you... 

The idea that we can or should try to "repay" God for his grace cuts away the source of power that saved us in the first place - God's grace. It's exactly what Paul so vehemently rejected when he cried, "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Gal 3:3) It is God who saves, and God who sanctifies - all by grace. 

Above all else and before any discussion of what we should do, we must understand deeply in our bones who we are: the workmanship of God. You are his project. So you are invited to be who you are. Your life is not your own; it was bought with a price. 

Live with the gratitude, humility, joy, and peace that come from knowing it does not all depend on you. You are loved and accepted in Christ, so you don't have to focus on what you do or don't do for God. Now you can focus on what Jesus has done for you, and that will cause you to love God more. Then you can't help but walk in grace, realizing how costly God's grace was."  

Read the full post here.

Matt Chandler: Marvelous, Infinite, Matchless Grace

“All your church attendance, all your religious activities, your Sunday school attendance medals, your journals, having a “quiet time,” reading the Scriptures—it’s all in vain if you don’t have Christ.

We are saved, sanctified, and sustained by what Jesus did for us on the cross and through the power of his resurrection.If you add to or subtract from the cross, even if it is to factor in biblically mandated religious practices like prayer and evangelism, you rob God of his glory and Christ of his sufficiency. 

Romans 8:1 tells us that there is no condemnation for us, not because of all the great stuff we’ve done but because Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. My sin in the past: forgiven. My current struggles: covered. My future failures: paid in full all by the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace found in the atoning work of the cross of Jesus Christ.” HT: OFI

"Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ." - Luther

Cheap Book Alert: Note to Self by Joe Thorn.

I enjoyed this gospel-saturated book. Today they are selling the kindle version for only $3 at Amazon. Pick it up here.

Free Music Recommendation: Lecrae - Church Clothes

Get Lecrae's new mixtape here.

Bill Kynes: What Pastors Must Understand

"What is that one thing that you must be good at if you are to be a good pastor? What is most worth your time in developing? What is the core from which everything else flows?

I have concluded that when it comes right down to it, there is really only one thing I as a pastor have to offer my congregation---and only one thing that the church has to offer the world. 

In my role as a pastor people come to me with all sorts of problems, but I confess: I am a physician with but one medicine to prescribe, and that is the gospel of Christ. It may need to be applied in various ways, various aspects of it may need to receive the right emphasis, and it may need to be administered in the right form. But only the gospel of Jesus Christ can heal the deepest wounds of the human heart and enable us to prosper according to God's design, bringing glory to our Lord..."

Read the rest here. 

D. A. Carson: A Gospel-Shaped Life

One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shape everything we do in the local church, all of our ethics, all of our priorities.

Even the Holy Spirit is All About Christ

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14)

These verses show us that even the Holy Spirit is Christo-centric. He is all about Christ, just as we should be. He concerns himself with giving Christ his rightful glory in an act of selfless love.

I just received a new commentary set on the Gospel of John written by James M. Boice. He has some great things to say. Regarding this passage he writes:

”He [the Holy Spirit] will not speak of himself, but of Christ. Therefore, we may conclude that any emphasis upon the person and work of the Spirit that detracts from the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not the Spirit’s doing... Wherever Jesus is exalted - in whatever way - there the Third person of the Trinity is at work."

Robert Farrar Capon: Two-Hundred Proof Grace

The Reformation was a time when men went blind, staggering drunk because they had discovered, in the dusty basement of late medievalism, a whole cellar full of fifteen-hundred-year-old, two-hundred proof Grace–bottle after bottle of pure distilate of Scripture, one sip of which would convince anyone that God saves us single-handedly. 

The word of the Gospel–after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps–suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home before they started…Grace has to be drunk straight: no water, no ice, and certainly no ginger ale; neither goodness, nor badness, not the flowers that bloom in the spring of super spirituality could be allowed to enter into the case. via JD

Tullian Tchividjian: What Does Christian Growth Look Like?

Terms That Matter

These may be familiar terms to you, but it is always helpful to refresh our memory every now and then with the stuff of eternity. Here are some key doctrinal words and definitions:

Total Depravity: (result of original sin) The doctrine that fallen man is completely touched by sin and that he is completely a sinner. He is not as bad as he could be, but all areas of his being, body, soul, spirit, mind, emotions, etc., are sin-stained. In that sense he is totally depraved.

Because man is depraved, nothing good can come out of him and God must account the righteousness of Christ to him. The sinner cannot save himself nor exercise faith apart from regeneration.

Regeneration: (born-again) The act of God whereby he renews the spiritual condition of a sinner. It is a spiritual change brought about by the work of the Holy Spirit so that the person then possesses new life – eternal life.

Reformed theology teaches that regeneration precedes faith.

Justification: “An instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as forgiven and Christ’s righteousness as belonging to us, and (2) declares us to be righteous in his sight.” -Grudem

Just-as-if-I-never-sinned & Just-as-if-I-had-always-obeyed.

Imputation: To reckon to someone the blessing, curse, debt, etc. of another. Adam's sin is imputed to all people. Therefore, we are effectively all guilty before God. Our sins were put upon, imputed, to Jesus on the cross where He became sin on our behalf and died with them. Therefore, our sins are forgiven.

Imputation is the means of our salvation. When Jesus died on the cross, our sins, in a sense, died with him. The righteousness that was his through his perfect obedience to the Father in his complete obedience to the Law is imputed, given, to us.

Legalism: The view that one finds salvation or God’s favor by the merit of his own efforts to perform works of the law.

Legalism is our default setting regarding how we view God and salvation.

Legalism says that we climb up to God. The Gospel says that God came down to us.

Legalism says “do” to earn favor, the gospel says “it is done” – now live every day in light of that news.

Sovereignty: Supreme reign / supreme power

The right of God to do as he wishes with his creation.

This implies that there is no external influence upon him and that he also has the ability to exercise his power and control according to his will.

Gospel: The good news that though we were by nature enemies of God, we now have forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life, died for our sins, was buried, & and bodily rose in accordance with the Old Testament (See 1 Corinthians 15).

 ”From ‘Genesis to Revelation’ it is God’s promise of a Son that will crush the serpent’s head, forgive the sins of his people, raise them from the dead, and give them everlasting life solely on the basis of his grace for the sake of Christ.” – Horton

Grace: Unmerited favor

“God’s goodness towards those who deserve his punishment.” - Grudem

It is God's free action for the benefit of his people. It is different than justice and mercy. Justice is getting what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we do not deserve.