Romans 6:14-15 says, For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
The word "grace" is, no doubt, a most precious truth personified by God through Christ and the work on the Cross. We sing "Amazing Grace" by John Newton and is loved by both Christians and within the secular society. However, people within and without the church have little to no concept of grace as it is greatly misunderstood.
Many Christians believe it to mean that because of grace, they can live as they please without regard to God's law - specifically the moral will or commandments of God. Christian's take Paul's words to mean they can live as they please. This has sadly resulted in what is termed "easy believism" or "cheap grace."
Theologically this is termed antinomianism, which is the conviction that believers are freed from the demands of God’s law by depending upon God’s grace for their salvation. Of course, this is not a new concept and Jude addresses it when he states For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 4).
The difficulty as a pastor is to preach salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone and to do so without merging toward antinomianism or, at the other end of the spectrum, and to add works. Both are heretical and to combat this is for us to have a clear understanding and biblical view of the grace of God.
We often define grace as "God's unmerited favor." That's good, but only gives us half of the whole definition. Galatians 3:10 states that For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. We are all deserving the "curse" of God because we all have fallen short of the mark and have not obeyed the law. That's why Jesus came and He alone as the God-Man could and did obey the law completely and perfectly.
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus states, Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am cnot come to destroy, but to fulfill. And praise God, that is exactly what He did for you and me. Christ fulfilled the law in which we could not do.
Thus, a more complete definition is one given by Jerry Bridges where he defines it as "God's blessings through Christ to people who deserve His curse" (The Transforming Power of the Gospel p.1192). He goes on to say that a concept of grace that does not include our "ill-deservedness" and Christ's work for us will lead people down the wrong path of "easy believism" or "cheap grace." However, a concept that does include our "ill-deservedness" and Christ's work for us leads us to a place of gratitude for His gift of grace, which then leads to a loving obedience.
As Christians we need to be just as dependent on the grace of God that we received at salvation in our daily walk with the Lord. It's that same grace that is needed in all we do in and for His kingdom.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 12, 2012
We Must Pray!
There is a sweet spirit in our church as of late. However, it's presence is not without many burdens, struggles, strongholds, and outright sin. There is a war that is waging for the hearts and minds of so many people and I sense that we are having more casualties than victories.
This spiritual warfare has of late overwhelmed my soul and caused my mind to race with inability to focus and comprehend on all the specific individual needs and struggles within my congregation. How am I to meet these needs. How am I to help those whom I don't even know the battle that their facing. How am I to help the person who doesn't even recognize their sin and coolness to the things of God? What can I do?
As these questions pounded in my mind, it was answered very distintly with one word - pray. What can I do? ...I can pray. The fact is, I can do nothing outside the power of the Spirit of God. Only He can open the eyes that are blinded. Only He can heal the broken hearted. Only He can reveal and convict people of their sin. Only He can give the power to overcome struggles and strongholds. Only He can give me the strength to carry the burdens.
It is not even the amount of words that I pray, but the atitude of prayer. I see in Scripture how the great men of prayer had few words that were put on the printed page, but their wrestling with God was long. They were successful with few words but victory came in patience and in most instances a long wait. They prayed to God with fastings and mighty cries both day and night.
In reading E.M. Bounds "The Power of Prayer" I read this quote that really spoke to my heart and drove me to my knees, knowing what can and will make the difference.
"This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but a hurried half hour in morning to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer - almighty prayer, I am ready to say - and why not? for that it is almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and truth, O then, pray, pray, pray!"
- William Wilberforce
This spiritual warfare has of late overwhelmed my soul and caused my mind to race with inability to focus and comprehend on all the specific individual needs and struggles within my congregation. How am I to meet these needs. How am I to help those whom I don't even know the battle that their facing. How am I to help the person who doesn't even recognize their sin and coolness to the things of God? What can I do?
As these questions pounded in my mind, it was answered very distintly with one word - pray. What can I do? ...I can pray. The fact is, I can do nothing outside the power of the Spirit of God. Only He can open the eyes that are blinded. Only He can heal the broken hearted. Only He can reveal and convict people of their sin. Only He can give the power to overcome struggles and strongholds. Only He can give me the strength to carry the burdens.
It is not even the amount of words that I pray, but the atitude of prayer. I see in Scripture how the great men of prayer had few words that were put on the printed page, but their wrestling with God was long. They were successful with few words but victory came in patience and in most instances a long wait. They prayed to God with fastings and mighty cries both day and night.
In reading E.M. Bounds "The Power of Prayer" I read this quote that really spoke to my heart and drove me to my knees, knowing what can and will make the difference.
"This perpetual hurry of business and company ruins me in soul if not in body. More solitude and earlier hours! I suspect I have been allotting habitually too little time to religious exercises, as private devotion and religious meditation, Scripture-reading, etc. two hours or an hour and a half daily. I have been keeping too late hours, and hence have had but a hurried half hour in morning to myself. Surely the experience of all good men confirms the proposition that without due measure of private devotions the soul will grow lean. But all may be done through prayer - almighty prayer, I am ready to say - and why not? for that it is almighty is only through the gracious ordination of the God of love and truth, O then, pray, pray, pray!"
- William Wilberforce
Monday, January 9, 2012
Our Good is Not Ever Good Enough
Isaiah 64:6 tells us that all our righteousness or all of our good works has nor earns any merit from our heavenly Father. Somehow we believe that God's goodness or grace toward us is dependent on how well we perform. Not so! God's merit towards us dependent upon the sacrificial atonement that was met by His only begotten Son. The same grace that was needed for our salvation is the same grace needed for our works or fruit as His children.
John Owen, known as the prince of Puritan theologians, wrote these words way back in 1657:
John Owen, known as the prince of Puritan theologians, wrote these words way back in 1657:
"Believers obey Christ as the one by whom our obedience is accepted by God. Believers know all their duties are weak, imperfect and unable to abide in God’s presence. Therefore they look to Christ as the one who bears the iniquity of their holy things, who adds incense to their prayers, gathers out all the weeds from their duties and makes them acceptable to God."[1]
In his quote, Owen speaks of Christ bearing the iniquity of our holy things—that is, the sinfulness of even our good works. As another Puritan preacher was reputed to have said, “Even our tears of repentance need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb.” So our best works can never earn us one bit of favor with God. Let us then turn our attention from our own performance, whether it seems good or bad to us, and look to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is God’s provision for our sin, not only on the day we trusted Christ for our salvation but every day of our Christian lives.[2]
May we continue to depend upon the grace of God for all that we are and do as believers.
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