THE GREAT GOSPEL OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST …feast upon the unfathomable riches of our redemption as found in the Lamb of God (by John Calvin)

Posted on July 29, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

Without the gospel

everything is useless and vain;
we are not Christians;
all riches is poverty,
all wisdom folly before God;
strength is weakness,
and all the justice of man is under the condemnation of God.

But by the knowledge of the gospel we are made:

children of God,
brothers of Jesus Christ,
fellow townsmen with the saints,
citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,
heirs of God with Jesus Christ, by whom
the poor are made rich,
the weak strong,
the fools wise,
the sinner justified,
the desolate comforted,
the doubting sure,
and slaves free.

It is the power of God for the salvation of all those who believe.

It follows that every good thing

we could think or desire

is to be found in this same Jesus Christ alone.

For, He was

REVERSING THE CURSE …the Holy Spirit’s work in bringing sinners to faith in Christ (by John Owen)

Posted on July 28, 2009 Updated on July 28, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

All men can be divided into two groups. They are either regenerate or unregenerate. All men are born unregenerate (John 3:3-8).

…Spiritual darkness is in all men and lies on all men until God, by an almighty work of the Spirit, shines into men’s hearts, or creates light in them (Matt 4:16; John 1:5; Act 26:18; Eph 5:8; Col 1:13; 1 Pet 2:9). …The nature of this spiritual darkness must be understood. When men have no light to see by, then they are in darkness (Exod. 10:23). Blind men are in darkness, either by birth or by illness or accident (Psa. 69:23; Gen 19:11; Acts 13:11). A spiritually blind man is in spiritual darkness and is ignorant of spiritual things.

There is an outward darkness on men and an inward darkness in men.
Outward darkness is when men do not have that light by which they are enabled to see. So outward spiritual darkness is upon men when there is nothing to enlighten them about God and spiritual things (Matt 4:16; Psa 119:105; Psa. 19:1-4,8; 2 Pet 1:19; Rom 10:15, 18). It is the work of the Holy Spirit to remove this darkness by sending the light of the gospel (Acts 13:2, 4; 16:6-10; Psa. 147:19,20).

Inward darkness, on the other hand, arises from the natural depravity and corruption of the minds of men concerning spiritual things. Man’s mind is depraved and corrupted in things which are natural, civil, political, and moral, as well as in things which are spiritual, heavenly and evangelical. This depravity is often held back from having its full effects by the common grace of the Holy Spirit. So, man’s mind being darkened, he is unable to see, receive, understand or believe to the saving of his soul. Spiritual things, or the mysteries of the gospel, without the Holy Spirit first creating within the soul a new light by which they can see and receive those things, cannot bring salvation.

• So the unregenerate ‘walk in the futility of their mind’ (Eph 4:17).
• The natural inclination of the unregenerate mind is to seek those things that cannot satisfy (Gen 6:5).
• It is an unstable mind (Prov. 7:11-12).
• The unregenerate understanding is darkened and cannot judge things properly (John 1:5).
• The unregenerate heart is blind. In Scripture the heart includes the will also.

Light is received by the mind, applied by the understanding and used by the heart. ‘But if the light within is darkness,’ said Jesus, ‘how great is that darkness.’

Paul tells us that the first Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45). The natural man comes from the first Adam and the spiritual man comes from the last Adam. The natural man is one that has all that is or can be had from the first Adam. He has a rational soul and is well able to use it. The natural man trusts in his reasoning powers and sees no need for any spiritual help. He does not see that God has given him a soul in order that it might learn and receive what he, God, has to give. Man is never made to live independently of God. Eyes are beautiful and useful, but if they try to see without light, their beauty and power will be of no use and the eyes might even be damaged. And if the unconverted mind tries to see spiritual things without the help of the Spirit of God, it will only end up destroying itself.

In verse fourteen [1 Cor 2] we see things put to the natural man. These things are ‘the things of the Spirit of God’. Now what are these things of the Spirit of God which are put to the natural man? Here are some of them, all from 1 Cor chapter 2, ‘Jesus and him crucified’ (v.2). ‘The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory’ (v. 7). “The things that are freely given to us by God’ (v.12). ‘The mind of Christ’ (v. 16).

In this double assertion we learn firstly that the power to receive spiritual things is denied the natural man (Rom 8:7). He cannot receive them because they are spiritually discerned. We learn secondly that the natural man willingly rejects them. This is implied in the words ‘does not receive the things of the Spirit of God’. And he rejects them because they appear to him to be foolish.

Paul teaches us the Christ ‘has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love’ (Col 1:13).

[Due to the corruption of nature] …the darkness fills the mind with enmity against God and all the things of God ( Col 1:21; Rom 8:7). If God is great in goodness and beauty, why do men hate him? This hatred arises from this darkness which is the corruption and depravity of our nature.

This darkness fills the mind with prejudices against all spiritual things, and the mind is utterly unable to free itself from the prejudices. The darkened mind sees first the things that it lusts after. Then, later, it recognizes those lusts in itself. But when men are called to seek God above all other desires, then this is considered to be foolish, because to the unconverted mind things that are spiritual things will never bring contentment, happiness and satisfaction. In particular, the unregenerate mind has a special bias against the gospel.

The gospel…
shows that obedience can arise only from a regenerate heart that is no longer at enmity with God. It also shows that the whole purpose of obedience is to being glory to God. It shows that we cannot obey until we have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. All these things put moral duties into a new framework, the framework of the gospel. Secondly, by giving us his Spirit, God strengthens and enables us to obey according to the gospel framework.

If the mind is ignorant of the gospel, or is blinded by prejudice, then the heart will not be roused to desire Christ, nor the will be urged to embrace him. …We see, therefore, how important are the words of Jesus when he said, ‘You must be born again.’

… As the body cannot live without the soul, so the soul cannot live to God without spiritual life. Without the spiritual life the soul becomes morally corrupt (Rom 8:7,8; John 6:44; Matt 7:18; 12:33; Jer. 13:23).

This inability to live to God is due to sin (Rom 5:12).
Unregenerate persons are able to do something towards regeneration, but this they neglect to do, so they willfully sin. Though they cannot live to God, they can and do resist God, because their depraved minds are alienated from the life of God. Unregenerate persons freely and wickedly choose to disobey God.

Jesus complained, ‘You will not come to me that you might have life’ (John 5:40). There is in this death a ceasing of all vital activities. Unregenerate persons cannot do any vital activity that could be called spiritual obedience. True spiritual obedience springs from the life of God (Eph 4:18).

Our spiritual life differs from every other kind of life. It does not come to us directly from God, but it is first deposited in all its fullness in Christ our mediator (Col. 1:19). So it is out of his fullness that we receive this life (John 1:16). So Christ is our life (Col 3:4). It is, therefore, not so much we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal 2:20). We can do nothing of ourselves but only by Christ’s power and virtue (1 Cor 15:10).

The origin of this life is in God
The fullness of this life is in Christ. And it is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. We experience it as a new power and ruling principle in us (Rom 8:11; Eph 4:15, 16). Christ is our life and without him we can do nothing (John 15:5) [including believe the gospel with our own natural resources]. This spiritual life imparted to us by the Holy Spirit is still also in Christ. So, by this life we are joined to Christ as a branch is joined to the tree, derives its life from the tree and can never live independently of the tree (John 15:4).

This spiritual life is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit in order that we might be enabled to obey the terms of God’s holy covenant. By this new life, God writes his law in our hearts and then we are able to walk in obedience to his commandments. Without this ruling principle of spiritual life there can be not spiritual obedience. To say that we are able by our own efforts to think good thoughts or give God spiritual obedience before we are spiritually regenerate is to overthrow the gospel and the faith of the universal church in all ages. It does not matter how powerfully we are motivated and encouraged, without regeneration we can do no good works which are pleasing and acceptable to God. A religious, decent, moral life, derived from self and not ‘born of God’ is as sinful as the worst of sinful lives.

Preachers of the gospel and others have sufficient warrant to press on all men the duties of repentance, faith and obedience; although they know the unregenerate have no ability to do these things. They must show the unregenerate why they are unable and that it is their own fault they are unable to do these things. It is the will of God and the command of God that the unregenerate should be told his duties. We are not to consider what man can or will do, but what God says they should do. There are two good reasons why these duties should be pressed on the ungodly. The ungodly must be stopped from going further into sin and being more and more hardened, and these duties are the means appointed by God for their conversion. …by God’s grace working in due time …

Yes the Word of God is powerfully persuasive in itself, but until born again, unregenerate men cannot and will not be persuaded by it. The unregenerate must be persuaded that these are not ‘cunningly devised fables’ (2 Pet 1:16). Things in Scripture are not just truths, but divine truths. These are things that ‘the mouth of the Lord has spoken’. And only when a person is born again will he believe that.

The unregenerate must be persuaded that the things preached are good, lovely and excellent. They must be persuaded that only faith in God can bring them to the height of all happiness. They must be persuaded of the sinful depravity of their souls and their utter inability to do any good acceptable to God without first being born against by His Spirit. All these truths are divine truths, and therefore the person hearing them must be convinced that they have been revealed by one who has divine authority. Not only must the mind be persuaded but also the heart must be activated to desire and the will heartily to embrace these things for salvation.

To some, preaching is made effective for salvation, to others for damnation. God also gives his appointed preachers special spiritual gifts and abilities to preach his Word (Eph 4:11-13). So the power to persuade a person to repent and believe the gospel by preaching lies in the sovereign will of God.

If regeneration is nothing more than persuading a person to be good, then no new, real, supernatural strength has been conferred on the soul, though prejudices may have been removed from the mind. According to this teaching, man has no need to such supernatural power, because he has been able by his own power, the power of his own will, to overcome his depraved, sinful, corrupt nature, remove all errors and prejudices from his mind and bring himself to such holiness of life as to make himself wholly acceptable to God. This is the power of free will which some have believed and taught. Such people deny that man must first be born again before he can do anything pleasing and acceptable to God.

Some teach that grace enlightens the mind, and that all man has to do is to choose the good which God’s grace has shown him, and then that grace will work along with his choosing and willing and so bring the soul to new birth. But all the grace of God is doing here is enlightening the mind, exciting the desires and helping the will, and this only by persuading the person to repent and believe. No real strength is imparted to the soul. The will is left perfectly free to cooperate with this grace or not, as it chooses. This also denies the whole grace of Christ and to make it of no use at all in salvation. It ascribes to man’s free will the honor for his conversion. It makes a man give birth to himself which is nonsense. It destroys the analogy between the work of the Holy Spirit in forming the natural body of Christ in the womb and the work of the Holy Spirit in the forming of his mystical body in regeneration. It makes the act of living to God by faith and obedience to be a mere natural human act and not the result of Christ’s mediation. It allows the Spirit of God no more power in regenerating us than is in a minister who preaches the Word or an orator who eloquently and feelingly persuades a person to turn from evil to doing good.

We do not pray to God for anything but for what he has promised to give us.
Does anyone then pray that God would merely persuade him or others to believe and obey? Do people pray to be converted or to convert themselves? The church of God has always prayed that God would work these things in us. Those who are truly concerned for their souls pray that God will bring them to true repentance and faith, that he will graciously work these things in their hearts. They pray that he will give them faith for Christ’s sake and increase it in them and that he will work in them by the exceeding greatness of his power both to will and to do according to his good pleasure.

To think that by all these prayers, and with all those examples of prayer given in Scripture, we desire nothing more than that God would persuade, excite and stir us up to act by our own power and ability to bring about the answers to our prayers by our own efforts, is contrary to all Christian experience. For a man to pray with importunity, earnestness and with fervent zeal for that which he is quite able to do by himself, and which cannot be done except he will it to be done by his own free choice, is ridiculous. They mock God who pray to him to do for them what they can do for themselves. Suppose a man has ability to believe and repent. Suppose that his ability to believe and repent lies only in his free will and that God cannot by his grace work in him, but only persuade him to repent and believe, and to give him good reasons why he should do so, what would be the purpose of praying to God. Why ask God to give him faith and repentance?

It is because many believe that they have it in their own power to repent and believe when they so choose, that they think Christian prayers are useless and foolish. But it is as easy to persuade a person to regenerate himself by persuading himself to repent and believe as it is to persuade a blind man to see, or a lame man to walk normally or a dead man to rise from the grave. Conclusion: The work of regeneration is not the Holy Spirit [merely] persuading sinners to repent and believe.

How Regeneration is Accomplished
In regeneration a person the Holy Spirit makes use of the law and the gospel. There is not only a moral but also a direct nature-changing work of the Spirit on the minds or souls of men in regeneration. This is what we must hold on to, or all the glory of God’s grace is lost, and the grace which comes to us by Christ will be neglected. Paul tells us of this direct work of the Spirit: “That you may know … what s the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe, according to the work of his mighty power which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead’ (Eph 1:18:- 2). The power here mentioned has an exceeding greatness attributed to it, because by this power Christ was physically raised from the dead. Paul would have us know that the same mighty power which God worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead is the same mighty power which the Holy Spirit works when he raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life in regeneration. By this same mighty power we are kept by God to the day of salvation. It is because of his mighty power continually working in Christians that they are kept from ever falling away so as to be eternally lost.

God Works in Us What He has Promised to Do
Before the work of grace the heart is ‘stony’. It can do no more than a stone to please God. A stony heart is obstinate and stubborn. But God says that he will take away this stony heart (Ezek 11:19). He does not say he will try and take it away, or give us some power so that we can take it away ourselves, but that he will take it away. When God says he will take it away, he means that he will infallibly take it away and that nothing can stop him taking it away. He promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit (Ezek 36:26).

There is an ‘eye’ in the understanding of man. This eye is the ability to see spiritual things. It is sometimes said to be blind, darkness, shut. By these descriptions we are taught that the natural mind cannot know God personally for salvation, and nor can it see, that is, discern spiritual things. It is the work of the Spirit of grace to open this eye (Luke 4:18, Acts 26:18). He does this, firstly, by giving us the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Secondly, he gives us a heart to know him (Jer 24:7).

We are enabled to obey God firstly by an inward, spiritual, ruling principle of grace … by virtue of the life and death of Jesus Christ according to the terms of the new covenant… by which God writes his laws in our hearts and enables us to obey them by the Holy Spirit.

THE NEED FOR BIBLICAL DISCERNMENT IN PERILOUS TIMES … (by Pastor Lars Larson, PhD)

Posted on July 20, 2009 Updated on July 20, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

The Present State of Evangelicalism
As was pointed out above, there is increasing alarm among a number of evangelical leaders about the current state of evangelicalism and the direction in which the movement is proceeding. In this section we wish to consider some of the forces which make the matter of discernment a pre-eminent concern.

We have been influenced by Society
Dockery, the first writer cited above, described postmodernism as it has emerged in secular society in order to awaken Christians of the difficult task which faces them to take the gospel to this kind of world. But he fails to point out that Christians themselves, being in the world, have bought into these ideas. In fact, evangelicalism has embraced this philosophy wholesale. There is a disinterest by most Christians, even an aversion by many, to think through matters of doctrine (teaching). Perhaps they make a little effort, struggle a bit, and then throw up their hands and respond, “it is irrelevant anyway, what is important is the heart.” Recently I received a letter from a lady and her husband with whom I had a discussion about the doctrines of grace when we were visiting in California. After I sent them some basic outline material and recommended some books which discussed the issues, here was her response: “Have attempted to wade through the material you sent, but it is all to confusing to my pea brain. We both just accept the gospel plain and simple, and will leave the intellectual stuff to you, Lars.” The problem is that the very things we were discussing concerned the nature and the content of the gospel. This husband and wife are dear friends, and they have been Christians faithfully serving for many years. But for many of those years they served in a church which had forsaken the gospel. Thankfully, they came out, but then they became a part of another church where they stayed for two years and suffered there because of the teaching. Again, they came out. They have since found a church where they are comfortable. But during this whole process they struggled with much difficulty to identify what was wrong with the churches to which they belonged. Had they done the work years ago struggling with the issues, which the Scriptures affirm we should do, they would have seen the issues much more clearly, and much sooner, moreover, they may have been able to assist others who were struggling along with them. The approach is typical of these days. You must not relegate your thinking to others. Why? Because very possibly they themselves are not thinking and they may be in error. You must learn to discern.

The beginnings of this trend date to the sixties. here is a description of evangelicals of that period:

A generation brought up on guitars, choruses, and home group discussions. Educated, as one of them put it to me, not to use words with precision because the image is dominant, not the word. Equipped not to handle doctrine but rather to ‘share’. A compassionate, caring generation, suspicious of definition and labels, uneasy at, and sometimes incapable of, being asked to wrestle with sustained didactic exposition of theology. Excellent when it comes to providing religious music, drama, and art. Not so good when asked to preach and teach the Faith or to express it in writing.

Whenever we loose our ability to discern, when we become “uneasy at, and sometimes incapable of, being asked to wrestle” with issues of truth, we set ourselves up for a major fall. This mindset began in the world, and was carried over into the church. The results have been staggering. But since one aspect of discernment is recognizing error, few even realize a problem exists. And those who recognize a problem are considered alarmists, extremists, irrelevant, outdated, and out of touch.

We are all susceptible to being shaped by our environment. In fact, we will have our thinking formed by the world about us unless we take definite steps to prevent it from occurring. Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, “Do not be conformed to this world” (Rom. 12:2). The verb is an imperative, a command. But it is important to note that it is written in the present tense. Paul does not warn against the commencing of action; rather, he forbids it’s continuing. Paraphrased, he says, “You are presently being conformed to this world, put a stop to it.” And how is that done? It is accomplished by “being transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is.” Unless you make a definite, deliberate effort to stop the process already at work, you will be unable to know what is true or false, right or wrong, good or bad. You will “drift away”, a fearful condition of which the undiscerning babies in Hebrews were in danger. What is the preventive? “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard (the teachings of the apostles) (Heb. 2:1).

We are presently drifting about because of “waves” and “winds” of error unless we have secured ourselves to our mooring in the Word of God. I see the same things Dockery set forth characterizing the postmodern mind, as now descriptive of contemporary evangelical Christians. Many today no longer see the Bible as a depository of absolute truth. Not that this would be overtly stated; rather, I am sure it would be denied! But when one examines the way the Bible is used, the conclusion may be drawn that it is no longer a source of absolute truth from which true, prescriptive statements may be discovered. Rather, the Bible is used as a foil by which people generate imagination and find expression for their own feelings, or for a source of personal consolation or feelings of well-being. The Bible is simply not used as a source book for truth; it is not used to that end by many, even most, Christians. We may demonstrate this by considering the way most Bible studies are conducted in these days. The intent and purpose is not to discern the truth of the message of the biblical passage itself. Examine most Bible study guides for small groups and see what kinds of questions are asked. The questions posed of the Scriptures are not: “What was the intent of the author?” “What was the setting and state of the audience to which it was written?” “What is the message that was conveyed through this passage and what normative lesson does it impose upon me?” Rather, the questions being asked are: “What does it mean to me?” and, “what does it mean to you?” And although the various meanings (or perhaps better described as “impressions”) of the various members of the group are perhaps incoherent, irrational, or even conflicting with what is said in the verse being discussed, it does not matter, all things may be regarded as true. There is no wrong. This is the epitome of the worldliness of the days in which we live.

What we have described here is common among Christians; in fact, I would say that it is now characteristic of evangelical Christianity. Moreover, it is among ourselves too, in our own church. I know, for example, that even though I am able to present a case from Scripture of a certain truth, and demonstrate that a text teaches something in a definite way, there are those in the congregation who will dismiss what I have said on the basis of the following “reasoning”: “Well, that may be true for him, but not for me.” Or, “it might have been true then, but things have changed.” Or, “he can’t be that dogmatic, no one can know, and he is rather arrogant to even suggest to us that he can know.” “I have my own understanding of what is true.” This is postmodern thinking. This is the spirit of the world in which we are all immersed, which has influenced us all to varying degrees.

But it gets worse.

The Active and Passive Obedience of Jesus Christ …clothed with His perfect righteousness

Posted on July 19, 2009 Updated on July 19, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

“That which we plead is, that the Lord Christ fulfilled the whole law for us; he did not only undergo the penalty of it due unto our sins, but also yielded that perfect obedience which it did require. And herein I shall not immix myself in the debate of the distinction between the active and passive obedience of Christ; for he exercised the highest active obedience in his suffering, when he offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit. And all his obedience, considering his person, was mixed with suffering, as a part of his exinanition and humiliation; whence it is said, that “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.”

And however doing and suffering are in various categories of things, yet Scripture testimonies are not to be regulated by philosophical artifices and terms. And it must needs be said, that the sufferings of Christ, as they were purely penal, are imperfectly called his passive righteousness; for all righteousness is either in habit or in action, whereof suffering is neither; nor is any man righteous, or so esteemed, from what he suffers. Neither do sufferings give satisfaction unto the commands of the law, which require only obedience. And hence it will unavoidably follow, that we have need of more than the mere sufferings of Christ, whereby we may be justified before God, if so be that any righteousness be required thereunto; but the whole of what I intend is, that Christ’s fulfilling of the law, in obedience unto its commands, is no less imputed unto us for our justification than his undergoing the penalty of it is.” -John Owen

This past week I was posting on a reformed baptist forum discussing the impeccability and peccability of Christ, when a member of the faculty from a well known evangelical seminary (a seminary that I respect) posted a brief comment claiming: “Now of course, I don’t hold to what I think is a contrived concept of active/passive obedience. Christ lived a righteous life which demonstrated to the world and generations His fitfulness to be the perfect sacrifice on the cross. His righteous life does not atone for sin, only His death does that, and His righteous life credits nothing to my “account” as a believer. I think covenant theology reads way too much into the First Adam Second Adam parallel on this point.” (It should be noted: the President of this particular seminary does not affirm this doctrinal aberrancy).

Did you hear that beloved? I was stunned, shocked and surprised that someone at a seminary level would assert that Christ’s righteous life credits nothing to my “account” as a believer. There is no salvation without His righteousness being imputed to us in justification. And that righteousness is not a phantom righteousness, but that which results from His active and passive obedience in fulfilling the Law of God; and His once for all sacrifice on the cross as a propitiation for the sins of the people.

A few additional thoughts: First of all, Christ is never referred to as the Second Adam; only as the Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). Secondly, The active/passive obedience of Jesus Christ is not a contrived concept–it is essential to our justification which is the gospel. Thirdly, that he thinks the sinless righteous life lived by our Lord Jesus Christ in fulfilling the Law “credits nothing” in regards to our salvation in justification as a believer is severe doctrinal error. (FYI: I offered complete this brother complete access to my blogs and website in order to address this crucial issue in a discussion/debate format for further engagement. He graciously declined due to current scheduling demands and commitments to unfinished projects.)

Q – How could a man of his theological learning and education drift into such obvious error on an essential truth on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ? As you can imagine, several questions arose from him posting this theological error : i.e., then what is the righteousness that is imputed to all who believe in the Lord if not the righteous life of Christ? What then did the Lord actually accomplish in fulfilling the Law and all righteousness in His sinless life lived in regards to justification? What does he think is the relationship between the First Adam and the Last Adam? etc.

As a Reformed Baptist, I affirm on this blog, the biblically rich 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith which says:

Chapter 11: Of Justification
1. Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth, not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith, which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God. (Romans 3:24; Romans 8:30; Romans 4:5-8; Ephesians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31; Romans 5:17-19; Philippians 3:8, 9; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12; Romans 5:17 ) (emphasis mine)

2. Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love. (Romans 3:28; Galatians 5:6; James 2:17, 22, 26 )

3. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified; and did, by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them, make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in their behalf; yet, inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them, and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead, and both freely, not for anything in them, their justification is only of free grace, that both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners. (Hebrews 10:14; 1 Peter 1:18, 19; Isaiah 53:5, 6; Romans 8:32; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 3:26; Ephesians 1:6,7; Ephesians 2:7 )

Could it be any more clear?

To help address this important issue, I discovered a very thorough and powerful treasure, written by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon, that answered these and many more important questions about the active and passive obedience in Christ. (Also, I would encourage you to listen to Dr. S. Lewis Johnson’s excellent series on Imputation as well). This is a very important issue beloved. With the much anticipated significant conference next month, “Together for the Gospel”; the unfortunate and dangerous inroads being made into evangelicalism by those who affirm The New Perspective of Paul; Open Theism; and Brian McLaren’s postmodern Emergent Heterodoxy; and the skewed aberrant views the seminary faculty member above asserted who has strayed from historic orthodox biblical Christianity; we must now, not assume anything anymore about what anyone teaches due to church, seminary, or Para-church affiliation. WE MUST ALL be faithful Bereans (Acts 17:11), everyone of us, and ask the tough, essential, critical, and necessary questions of anyone who claims to represent the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel (1 Thess. 5:21-22). We must not play politics with God due to political alignment and personal relationships within evangelicalism. The stakes are too high beloved; for what we are talking about here is the integrity of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Take your time reading this following article and the rich truths it contains. May it encourage you to stand firm in the Lord, retaining the standard of sound words, contending for the once for all delivered to the saints faith. I highly commend it to you all. Make sure you visit Dr. McMahon’s website as well A Puritan’s Mind. It is excellent with many valuable resources for your reading and biblical encouragement.

Grace and peace to you,
Steve Camp
2 Cor. 5:21

With the rise of the heresy of the Federal Vision, New Perspectives on Paul, and the Auburn Avenue Theology, there stands a continued need for reproclaiming the truth of historic Christianity. Contrary to modern liberal theologians who are continually trying to appeal to the masses with new fangled theological ideas, such a reproclamation of orthodox theology is in accord with both the Gospel, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, and needs no revision, updating or change. Reformed Theology does not need to be modernized; it simply needs to be understood.

Reformed Theologians have generally made a distinction between what is called the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ. These two components of the obedentia Christi are fundamental to understanding the foundational doctrine of the iustitia imputata of Christ.[1] The two accompany each other at every point in the Savior’s life.[2] Romans 10:4 declares, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Christ is the “termination” or te,loj of the law for all who believe (by faith) that His obedience forensically justifies them eternally.

The obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ summarizes the iustitia Dei used throughout the Scriptures. This phrase relates to the reflection of God’s character as seen in the perfect obedience to the commandments, or lex moralis. Justification is a summation of the legal declaration of God toward the sinner – the actus forensis – counting the believer righteous (through imputation) rather than making him righteous (misconstruing justification and sanctification).[3] The iustitia imputata of Christ is completed upon God’s judicial declaration. At its heart “declarative justification” involves the iustitia alienum et extra nos (the alien righteousness not of the sinner but from Christ) imputed to the believer through faith by grace (Eph. 2:8-10).

This obedentia Christi fulfills the covenant breaking of the Law that the first Adam failed to uphold. Karlberg says, “Where the first Adam failed as a covenant breaker, the second Adam succeeded in perfectly fulfilling the demands of the covenant by his active and passive obedience.”[4] This does not liberate Christians from keeping the law – in terms of sanctification and holiness – but does release them from having to keep the law perfectly to satisfy divine justice and procure their own salvation (the first use of the law). Bahnsen states correctly, “Christ’s perfect obedience to the Law of God secures our release from the necessity of personally keeping the Law as a condition of justification.”[5] Rather, the foundation of Christian ethics is substantiated in the sinner through this iustitia imputata. McGrath rightly comments, “The doctrine of justification by faith declares that God makes available as a gift a new mode of existence, a new lifestyle, and enables believers to act in such a way that their actions correspond to those of Jesus.”[6] This does not mean that Christian ethics is justification. The only means by which the sinner is justified before God rests solely upon the imputation of the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ to a sinner, and subsequently God’s just declaration of the sinner’s soteriological state based on the work of Christ. It is this justification that makes Christian ethics possible.

Based on the requirements of the Law, it is not enough that Christ dies for the sins of His people. To die and cleanse sinners from their sin is to set them at ground zero. At that point redeemed sinners still continue to sin. As Luther said, they are piles of dung covered in gold. The remnants of remaining sin and the filthiness of the flesh still war with the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). They must also have a covering that continues to infinitely expiate their sin before the holy justice of God; otherwise, justification becomes analytic and not synthetic. Analytic justification is the Roman Catholic belief where God looks both at the sinner and the Savior and justifies them based on what Christ did and what the sinner continues to do. Synthetic justification is the biblical formulation where God recognizes Christ’s work, both the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva, and declares the sinner just as a result of them both. The sinner, in the ordo salutis, has been regenerated, acts with a fides reflexa (a reflex act of faith) springing from regeneration, is declared righteous by God on account of Christ’s iustitia imputata, but is then continued to be viewed in this credited manner because of the perfect obedentia of Christ’s work. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the iustitia Dei where men cannot. It is this active obedience that continues to justify them, and it is passive obedience that continues to save them before the wrath of God’s justice. Kline rightly comments, “For Christ himself enters upon the inheritance as the forerunner, surety, and head of the many only when by his active and passive obedience he has fulfilled the constant Hauptgebot of the covenant and submitted to the demand of the curse sanction voiced in the covenant from the beginning.”[7]

Throughout the centuries Reformed theologians and confessions have embraced and taught this distinction of the obedentia activa and obedentia passiva of Jesus Christ. The Belgic Confession states that understanding the justification of the sinner, “embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits…imputing to us all His merits, and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead.”[8] In question 60 the Heidelberg Catechism defines this righteousness which Christians receive, “as if I had never committed nor had any sins, and had myself accomplished all the obedience which Christ has fulfilled for me.” The Second Helvetic Confession echoes these sentiments, “Therefore, solely on account of Christ’s sufferings and resurrection God is propitious with respect to our sins and does not impute them to us, but imputes Christ’s righteousness to us as our own (2 Cor. 5:19 ff.; Rom. 4:25), so that now we are not only cleansed and purged from sins or are holy, but also, granted the righteousness of Christ, and so absolved from sin, death and condemnation, are at last righteous and heirs of eternal life. Properly speaking, therefore, God alone justifies us, and justifies only on account of Christ, not imputing sins to us but imputing his righteousness to us.”[9] And so Calvin’s influence on the French Confession states the same where the, “obedience of Jesus Christ, which is imputed to us” saves sinners.[10] The Westminster Confession makes this distinction when it says that justification is through “imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ” to elect sinners. [11] The Confession qualifies what “obedience” means in respect to Christ’s obedentia activa and obedentia passiva when it says, “Christ, by his obedience and death,” making a conscious choice to utilize both his active obedience and his passive obedience (death) as the foundation for justification.[12]

John Gill states that the obedentia Christi encompasses, “not only the active obedience of Christ, with his sufferings and death, but also that the holiness of his human nature is imputed to us for justification.”[13]

John Owen speaks extensively about this throughout His works. In one example he states:

“First, By the obedience of the life of Christ you see what is intended, —his willing submission unto, and perfect, complete fulfilling of, every law of God, that any of the saints of God were obliged unto. It is true, every act almost of Christ’s obedience, from the blood of his circumcision to the blood of his cross, was attended with suffering, so that his whole life might, in that regard, be called a death; but yet, looking upon his willingness and obedience in it, it is distinguished from his sufferings peculiarly so called, and termed his active righteousness. This is, then, I say, as was showed, that complete, absolutely perfect accomplishment of the whole law of God by Christ, our mediator; whereby he not only “did no sin, neither was there guile fold in his mouth,” but also most perfectly fulfilled all righteousness, as he affirmed it became him to do. Secondly, That this obedience was performed by Christ not for himself, but for us, and in our stead.”[14]

Owen also says that, “with respect unto the imputation of the active obedience or righteousness of Christ unto us [is] an essential part of that righteousness whereon we are justified before God.”[15] Owen gathers these biblical ideas as a result of Christ’s work as the Surety of the covenant. He continues, “That which Christ, the mediator and surety of the covenant, did do in obedience unto God, in the discharge and performance of his office, that he did for us; and that is imputed unto us.”[16]

Charles Hodge states, “The righteousness of Christ is commonly represented as including his active and passive obedience. This distinction is, as to the idea, Scriptural.”[17]

According to William Ames, in differentiation from the works of Adam which brought condemnation, Christ’s works, all of them, are imputed to the Christian for justification, “The obedience of Christ is that righteousness (Romans 5:16) in the name of which the grace of God justifies us, just as the disobedience of Adam was that offense (Romans 5:16) for which God’s justice condemns us. Therefore the righteousness of Christ is imputed to believers in justification.”[18]

Turretin explains the difference between the active and passive righteousness of Christ and its importance,

“the two things are not to be separated from each other. We are not to say as some do that the “satisfaction” is by the passive work of Christ alone and the “merit” is by the active work alone. The satisfaction and the merit are not to be thus viewed in isolation, each by itself, because the benefit in each depends upon the total work of Christ. For sin cannot be expiated until the law as precept has been perfectly fulfilled; nor can a title to eternal life be merited before the guilt of sin has been atoned for.”[19] He continues later, “the obedience of Christ rendered in our name to God the Father is so given to us by God that it is reckoned to be truly ours and that it is the sole and only righteousness on account of and by the merit of which we are absolved from the guilt of our sins and obtain a right to life; and that there is in us no righteousness or good works by which we can deserve such great benefits which can bear the server examination of the divine court, if God willed to deal with us according to the rigor of his law.”[20]

Witsius explicates the imputation of the work of Christ and the period of time in which Christ’s sufferings count for us, “from his very infancy, and through the whole course of His life, especially the close thereof, he endured all manner of sufferings, both in soul and body, humbling, nay, emptying himself, and being obedient to the Father unto death, even death of the cross…in time he fully performed for his people all that the law required in order to obtain a right to eternal life.”[21]

Jonathan Edwards explains why Christ’s active obedience is so vital in respect to covenant work and fulfillment:

The first distribution of the acts of Christ’s righteousness is with respect to the laws which Christ obeyed in that righteousness which he performed. But here it must be observed in general, that all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one law, and that is that which the apostle calls the law of works, Rom. 3:27. Every command that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right which God had established between himself and mankind. Christ came into the world to fulfill and answer the covenant of works, that is, the covenant that is to stand forever as a rule of judgment. And that is the covenant that we had broken, and that was the covenant that must be fulfilled.[22]

Shedd says the same more succinctly, “Christ’s active obedience is his perfect performance of the requirements of the moral law.”[23] Without this obedience, men can never be justified in the sight of God and obtain a true righteousness that does not fail them.

A no-nonsense article such as this is relevant to the theological seminarian today and his future ministry among the people of God. Why? Teachings surrounding the active and passive obedience of Christ in current Reformed Theological circles are under attack by those who desire to supplant these truths with a works-righteousness. For example, those who are advocating the New Perspective on Paul base much of their teachings on a rejection of the imputation of the active obedience of Christ in relation to the law. They rest much of their theology on parables (an historic practice heretics used to insert meaning of their own into the text) and on a reverse reading of typology (one consistently finds that their approach to typology has the Old Testament controlling the New Testament, rather than the other way around).

For example, they use the parable of the rich young ruler to say that works can save. In discourse with some of these advocates, one may listen affrightedly to their argumentation as they attempt to make Christ say that He expected the rich young ruler to save himself by giving away all his money. Then, they use John 15 to say that truly regenerate people who are indwelt with the regenerating new life of the Spirit can still fall away.[24] Such is the new-fangled “objectivity” of the covenant, and the “corporate justification” one should look to over and against the active and passive obedience of Jesus Christ advocated by these “covenant moralists.” Yet, the Scriptures speak differently, as does Confessional Christianity and its orthodox teachers. Such teachings are infiltrating, not only aged seminaries, but the up and coming pastor attending those seminaries, and then finally the churches they preach in every Sunday. This is a blatant retreat from the historical Reformed position, both theologically and confessionally on this issue. And it is of such importance to the salvation of the elect sinner, that in speaking about the active and passive obedience of Christ, Gerhard Forde rightly states, “where the church no longer speaks this word, it has lost its reason for being.”[25]

FOOTNOTES:
[1] This should be noted, “It is not to be interpreted as if it meant, that His passive obedience consisted in mere suffering, or that His active obedience consisted in mere service; for it implies obedience in both, and excludes sufferings from neither.” Buchanan, James, Justification, (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1991), Page 307.

[2] Berkhof, Louis, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdman’s Publishing Co.: 1988) Page 379.

[3] Making one righteous is to cross into the heretical “works salvation system” that Roman Catholicism has erected through the infused righteousness one may gain from Christ, but may also lose. The only manner in which a Roman Catholic may be able to gain this back is through works assigned to them through penance.

[4] Karlberg, Mark W. Westminster Theological Journal, Reformed Interpretation of the Mosaic Covenant, (Westminster Theological Seminary 1981;2002). Vol. 43, Page 52.

[5] Bahnsen, Greg, Theonomy in Christian Ethics, (Covenant Media Press: 2002) Page 128.

[6] McGrath, Alister E. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, In What Way Can Jesus Be A Moral Example For Christians? (The Evangelical Theological Society: 1991;2002). vol 34, Page 296.

[7] Kline, Meredith, Westminster Theological Journal, Law Covenant, (Westminster Theological Seminary: 1965;2002). vol 27, Page 13.

[8] The Belgic Confession of Faith, Article XXII, Our Justification Through Faith in Jesus Christ.

[9] The Second Helvetic Confession – Chapter XV, Of the True Justification of the Faithful.

[10] The French Confession, Article XVIII.

[11] The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XI Of Justification, Paragraph 1.

[12] Ibid, cf. the Westminster Confession of Faith paragraph 3, the Westminster Larger Catechism question 70 and the Westminster Shorter Catechism question 33.

[13] Gill, John, Sermon 37: The Doctrine Of Justification, By The Righteousness Of Christ,
Stated And Maintained. (Auburn, Ages Software: 2002, CD ROM) Page 11.

[14] Owen, John. Works, vol 3 (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1992) Pages 204-205.

[15] Owen, John. Works, vol 1 (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1992) Page 359.

[16] Ibid, Page 384.

[17] Hodge. Charles, Systematic Theology, Volume 3, (Grand Rapids, Wm. Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1986) Page 141.

[18] Ames, William. The Marrow of Theology, (Grand Rapids, Baker Books: 1997) Page 162. Emphasis mine.

[19] Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol 2 (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 1994), Page 448.

[20] Turretin, Francis. Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol 2 (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 1994) Page 648.

[21] Witsius, Herman. The Economy of the Covenants Between God and Man, vol 1 (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 1990) Page 402.

[22] Edwards, Jonathan, Works, vol 1 (Carlisle, Banner of Truth Trust: 1992) Page 575.

[23] Shedd, W.G.T. Dogmatic Theology, (Phillipsburg, P & R Publishing: 2003) Page 720.

[24] Examples of this kind of Romanized teaching, and more, which denies the imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ and centers on a works-justification, may be found throughout the theology of the following works: Reformed is Not Enough, by Doug Wilson; Stumbling into Apostasy, Credenda Agenda, Vol. 13, Number 2, by Douglas Wilson; tapes from the Auburn Avenue Pastor’s Conference 2002 or 2003; The Climax of the Covenant, by NT Wright; What Saint Paul Really Said, by NT Wright; Paul and Palestinian Judaism: A Comparison of Patterns of Religion, by E.P. Sanders; Word Biblical Commentary on Romans, by James D.G. Dunn; The Justice of God: A Fresh Look at the Old Doctrine of Justification by Faith, by James Dunn and Alan Sugate; Jesus, Paul, and the Law: Studies in Mark and Galatians, by James Dunn; Paul Among Jews and Gentiles and Other Essays, by Krister Stendahl; The New Perspective on Paul, by Michael B. Thompson; The Call of Grace, by Norman Shepherd.

[25] Forde, Gerhard, Dialog, Justification by Faith Alone. The Article by which the Church Stands or Falls? (Fall 1988) Vol 27, Page 260.

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH = PEACE WITH GOD …by Ichabod Spencer

Posted on July 13, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

Sermon # 10
Romans 5:1 “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). An unpardoned sinner can have no peace with God. While his conscience is unawakened, he may be careless and secure; but as soon as his eyes are opened, and his heart is made to feel, he must be miserable, till God speaks peace to his guilty soul. To be justified, is to be pardoned and accepted of God. Pardon and acceptance are only obtained by faith in Jesus Christ, as having atoned for sin by His precious blood. When it is given me to believe that Jesus Christ hath taken away my sins, there is nothing more to distress my conscience; then I have peace with God. The distress of an awakened soul arises from a guilty conscience, and a sense of his sins. As soon therefore as the poor trembling sinner discovers, that Christ died for such as he is; that Christ, being God, is able to save the chief of sinners; that this was his errand into the world, and that He hath said, “him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37): as soon as the poor sinner believes this, he hath peace with God; he can call God his Father; he can trust God for everything; he can think of death with comfort, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Sinner, is this your state? Do you know that there is no salvation without an interest in Christ?

That there is no peace with God but through Jesus Christ? That unless your sins be pardoned, your life must be unhappy, and your death the entrance of eternal misery? If I am looking unto Jesus as the only Saviour, and in self-despair have fled to Him for refuge, then God is no longer angry with me; my sins, which are many, are forgiven; my person is accepted; and if I die tonight, I shall go to God. O happy state, to have nothing to fear in life or death! To have God for our Father, Christ for our Redeemer, the Holy Ghost for our Comforter, death our friend, heaven our home, and a happy eternity before us of peace and joy. Sinner, is this thy case?

MEGA CHURCH …imagine if you could create the church you’ve always wanted – any way you wanted

Posted on July 11, 2009 Updated on July 11, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

Do it all without the Bible! With network play enabled, you can steal members from other churches and earn points just like you saved them yourself. The possibilities are endless! To grow your church, work on all the strategic variables,

• Write a mission statement
• Choose a logo
• Get a billboard
• Hire a professional worship musician
• Book a rock band
• Buy plasma television for your PowerPoint presentations

The Mega-Church craze is definitely on steroids – you won’t believe this. Does anyone remember Acts 2:42-47?

FROM THE CHURCH OF ST. ARBUCKS …evangelism, one cup at a time

Posted on July 10, 2009 Updated on July 10, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

“The good life is the middle way;
Between ambition and compassion,
Between action and reflection,
Between company and solitude,
Between hedonism and abstinence,
Between passion and judgment,
Between the cup of coffee and the glass of wine…”

-Jay McInerney
Author of “Bright Lights, Big City” and “The Good Life”

Jay is an author who has been labeled by the media as part of the new generation of writers called “the literary brat-pack.” He was a resident of my town, Nashville, TN, for a number of years before returning to Greenwich Village, NY in 2005. His career began with the zeitgeist “Bright Lights, Big City” published in 1984. Throughout his career McInerney has struggled against the strong, almost indelible, image of himself as both the author and protagonist of “Bright Lights, Big City.” In an interview conducted by Ron Hogan in 1997 – Beatrice Interview – he said the following, “There’s always been a personal element to my critical reception as a writer; people say that I’m too much of a public figure, too successful. My relationship with the press is an odd hall of mirrors.” I understand that tension very well.

His words above (which you can find at Starbucks on the “The Way I See It” cup #138) represent a very significant voice, belief, and ideal in the postmodern dialogue.

His key phrase is the opening one: the good life is the middle way. This is the rationale of the many cultural thinkers of our time–is it not?

The middle (the between) is the easy place. It is the place of imagined contentment and prolonged consequence. It is the great-negotiated corridor that seeks to appeal to as many as possible, but seeks to define nothing. It is the great vacancy occupied in the land called “Between”. It is the marketers dream and the prophets’ thorn. It is the place of indelible grey where truth distinctions are blended, blurred, and efficaciously bland. The middle way is safe, but not life changing; comfortable, but not reforming; acceptable, yet demands no sacrifice; happy, but void of the holy; lukewarm, but neither cold or hot. It asks to bear no cross; it seeks only to pacify and requires little change. Tolerance is the new theology and absolute truth is considered a four-letter word.

It is this benign existence of “between” that Jay unfolds above. Let me ask you today: what is the good life and where is it to be found? What is the answer to Mr. McInerney’s unasked question of “between?” What is the way out of the tepid, to a life which is hot? What does it mean to live life to the fullest, rather than to live it in the half-heartedness of “between?”

Jesus said this,

Matt. 16:24 ¶ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after
Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. Matt. 16:25 “For
whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My
sake will find it. Matt. 16:26 “For what will it profit a man if he gains the
whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his
soul? Matt. 16:27 “For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His
Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.

There is no “between” with Jesus—He demands complete surrender to His claims and asks that your life be abandoned to Him as Lord, King and Savior. Jesus is calling people today to turn from the hopeless, grey life of the “between”, and confess Him as Lord of your life, believe solely upon Him and His truth claims, and live for Him each day. That IS the full life. And once you have tasted it (1 Peter 2:1-3), the life of the “between” tastes only tepid, lukewarm, and moderate. The between life cannot satisfy, cannot save, cannot sanctify, cannot bring ultimate joy and contentment. It is only the life of radical surrender to the person and gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that can rescue one from “the between life” now and the wrath which is to come. It is only found through the cross of Christ and His resurrection from the dead.

Read the following with that in mind. The cross offers no between; and that is why it is a radical thing. Peace.

The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most unprecedented event in human history. In Jesus’ day it was the most excruciating, painful, horrific way of death known to man. It was usually reserved for the worst of criminals who had committed the most inhumane of crimes. The Roman roads were silhouetted with literally thousands of crosses that bore not only those outlaws, but ultimately the precious martyred bodies of the faithful for God.

A. W. Tozer brings this authenticity of the cross to vivid truth when he says, “We must do something about the cross and one of two things only we can – flee it or die upon it! The cross will cut into our lives where it hurts worst sparing neither us nor our carefully cultivated reputations.” Sin had to be destroyed. Death had to be conquered. The only way to eternal life is for the Old Adam to die – to be crucified with Christ. To follow Jesus meant hardship, persecution, almost certain death.

When Jesus called for all His true disciples to “deny [themselves], take up [their] cross, and follow Him” (Matthew 16:24; Luke 14:26f), He was not offering a suggestion but issuing a command. He was calling for the death of the old life, the old man, the old nature… the death of self (Romans 6:6). The crowd pleasers and thrill seekers of His time quickly dismissed any notion of giving up all to follow Him. They wanted an easier way – a broader road that they thought would lead to heaven (Matthew 7:13-14).

Nowhere in any of the gospels did our Lord Jesus say, “If any man wishes to be my disciple let him slip up his hand and put it down quietly.” That would be easy; no cross. The simple truth is this: happiness is convenient, but holiness costs. He does not want our hands raised beloved, but our lives surrendered.

Every true believer of the Lord Jesus Christ will know four realities of the cross: 1. the nakedness of the cross; 2. the loneliness of the cross; 3. the humiliation of the cross; and 4. the glory of the cross.

There is a nakedness to the cross.
We must be stripped of all confidence in our flesh; consider our lives to be bankrupt of any goodness that could add one additional work to our salvation. We must come destitute, broken, stripped of all fleshly religious boasting and as the hymn writer has instructed to sy, “nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Your cross I cling.” (Phil. 3:3-12).

There is a loneliness to the cross.
We must come alone to Christ; not carrying our parents cross, not our neighbors cross, not our friends cross, nor our brothers or sisters or spouse’s cross, but our cross. We must follow Jesus even if all others deny Him, reject Him, turn away from Him, and scorn Him (Luke 14:26-28; Matthew 10:34-39; 16:24-26).

There is a humiliation to the cross.
Pride is the most deadly of all sins; religious pride intensifies this depravity a hundred fold. Pride in ourselves, in our good works, in our abilities, in our own righteousness, must be crucified with Christ. We must be humbled under the weight of our sin and come as beggars pleading for His mercy; realizing that no church system, no religious practice, no ceremony or feast day, no indulgence from any church, no works of any kind can save us or add to our salvation (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:10-12, 6:6; Matthew 5:3,20).

Lastly, there is a glory to the cross.
The cross was not tragedy–but triumph. What man viewed in horror and shame, God viewed as victory. For now man once alienated by sin, has been brought into peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). Christ’s death on the cross was a substitution for you and me. He died in our place. He accomplished what man and all his religious good works could never do and that was to satisfy the wrath, justice, righteousness and holiness of God once for all. It took an unblemished Lamb; a perfect High Priest; and a sinless life lived. All of those things were present only in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As Dr. MacArthur is profound when he says, “Every sin, ever committed, by everyone that would ever believe was imputed or credited to Christ on the cross.” Though He is sinless, undefiled and absolutely holy, He was treated as if He lived our life. And by an act of grace (God’s unmerited favor to us; getting what we don’t deserve) when we by faith place our sole hope and trust for our salvation in the finished work and person of Jesus Christ alone, though we are sinful people to the core we are treated as if we lived His life; for His perfect righteousness is imputed or credited to us. If you know Christ as your Lord and Savior you are clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ not obtained through law-keeping, but through faith. What a wonderful, merciful Savior we have in the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen?

Our Lord, having conquered sin and death now gives life-everlasting, the forgiveness of sin, newness of life, securing us with His precious Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our redemption to all those that the Father has drawn and chosen from all eternity to be His own (John 3:16-18; Hebrews 2:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17,21; Ephesians 1:13-14; Galatians 2:20; Romans 5:1-10). What tremendous victories that cause us to glory in our Lord. (Titus 3:4-6).

Like the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22) who wanted heaven on his own terms, people today, are trying to find their own way to God. But Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6).

LUTHERSROSE …the symbol of the Reformation

Posted on July 6, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

When I was searching for a logo for AudienceONE Ministries that would capture the heart of the gospel, represent the great truths of the Reformation, and be immediately and unmistakably identifiable with our Lord Jesus Christ, there was only one choice: luthersrose. I photographed “luthersrose” passing through Germany while touring in Europe in mid 1997. This is the actual “rose” that is affixed, top center, in the ceiling of Luther’s church at Wittenberg. (What a great reminder of that pivotal period in church history of recovering the gospel of sola fide amid a recalcitrant Roman church.)

We need a new Reformation in the church in America today, beloved! If by God’s grace that were to occur in our time, what would it look like; how would we recognize it? Here is a glimpse of that prayerful reality.

This would profondly effect, initially and dramatically, three key areas:

1. a return to the gospel of justification by faith alone;

2. a return to the sufficiency and authority of Scripture in polity, personal devotion, and public ministry;

3. a return to the supremacy of God in corporate worship and individual life.

There would also be the tangible, visible fruit of real reform, in two important areas, sanctificaiton and evangelism:

1. Sanctification: how we as Christians live and function according to His truth.

2. Evangelism–a renewed burden and boldness in heralding the gospel; compelling lost souls to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In God’s soveregn electing love of His own, how tremendous it would be to see many respond in repentance to faith in Christ as Lord and Savior through the preaching of His gospel of grace. May ths symbol be a constant reminder to pray for Reformation for the church in America today–and for each of us to say, “Lord, let it begin with me.”

Luthersrose was the symbol that represented the great Reformer’s burden, passion, and convictions during the Reformation. It is rich with meaning that any believer in Christ will admire and treasure:

*THE BLACK CROSS represents the utter sinfulness of man and the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us on the cross for our iniquities.

*THE RED HEART represents the great love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ poured out for us for our salvation. That we are saved is all of grace, all of Christ, not of our works.

*THE FIVE PEDALED WHITE ROSE represents the purity of our new life in Him, the sinlessness of Christ Himself, and the five great truths of our redemption: by faith alone, through grace alone, because of Christ alone, on the Word alone, to the glory of God alone.

*THE DEEP ROYAL BLUE BACKROUND represents the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords-that He is the one true Sovereign of all.

*THE GOLD RING around the emblem represents the eternal life that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. The crown of life, the crown of righteousness, the crown of exaltation, the crown of glory, and the crown which is imperishable.

THE AMERICANS WHO RISKED EVERYTHING …the cost of freedom was considered by them to be “sacred honor”

Posted on July 3, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.

We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. —

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor. — John Hancock

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

QUESTIONS FOR YOUNG MINISTERS …by Isaac Watts

Posted on July 2, 2009 Updated on July 2, 2009

via: stevenjcamp

1) OF FAITHFULNESS IN THE MINISTRY.
Do I sincerely give myself ‘to the ministry of the word;’ Acts 6.4. and do I design to make it the chief business of my life to serve Christ in His Gospel, in order to the salvation of men?

Do I resolve, through the aids of divine grace, ‘to be faithful to him who hath put me into the ministry,’ and ‘to take heed to the ministry which I have received in the Lord that I may fulfil it?’ I Tim. 1.12, Col. 4.17.

Do I honestly and faithfully endeavour by study and prayer to know ‘the truth as it is in Jesus?’ Eph. 4.21. and do I seek my instructions chiefly from the ‘holy scriptures which are able to make me wise unto salvation, through the faith that is in Christ, that I may be thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work?’ 2 Tim. 3.14.17.

Do ‘I hold fast the form of sound words,’ as far as I have learned them of Christ and His apostles? 2 Tim. 1.13. That I ‘may by sound doctrine exhort and convince gainsayers;’ Tit. 1.9. and do I determine to ‘continue in the things which I have learned, knowing from whom I have learned them?’ 2 Tim. 3.14.

Do I resolve to give the people the true meaning of Christ in His word, so far as I can understand it, and ‘not to handle the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commend myself to every man’s conscience in the sight of God?’ 2 Cor. 4.2

Am I watchful to ‘avoid profane and vain babblings?’ 1 Tim. 6.20. and do I take care to ‘shun foolish questions, which do gender strife, and disputing about words, which are to no profit, but the subversion of the hearers?’ 2 Tim. 2.14, 23.

Do I study to show myself approved unto God, rightly dividing the word of truth; 2 Tim. 2.15 giving to every one, viz. to saints and sinners, their proper portion?

Do I make it my business to ‘testify to all men, whether Jews or Greeks, the necessity of repentance towards God, and faith in Christ Jesus;’ and that ‘there is no other name under heaven given whereby we may be saved;’ making this gospel of Christ the subject of my ministry? Acts 20.21. Acts 4.12.

Do I constantly affirm that ‘those who have believed in Christ Jesus should maintain good works, and follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’?’ Titus 3.8. Heb. 12.14.

Do I teach those that hear me to ‘observe all that Christ hath commanded us, nor shun to declare to them at proper seasons the whole counsel of God?’ Mat. 28.20. Acts 20.27.

Do I preach to the people, ‘not myself, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and myself as their servant for Christ sake?’ 2 Cor. 4.5.

Do I, in my study and my preaching, ‘take heed to my doctrine and my exhortations, so that I may save myself and them that hear me?’ I Tim. 4.16.

Do I ‘watch over the souls of men as one that must give an account, being solicitous that I may do it with joy, and not with grief?’ Heb.13.17.

2) OF DILIGENCE IN THE MINISTRY
Do I ‘give attendance to reading,’ meditation and study? Do I read a due portion of Scripture daily, especially in the New Testament, and that in the Greek original, that I may be better acquainted with the meaning of the word of God? 1 Tim. 4.13.

Do I apply myself to these things, and give myself wholly to them, that my profiting may appear to all? 1 Tim. 4.15.

Do I live, constantly, as under the eye of the great Shepherd, who is my master and my final judge, and so spend my hours as to be able to give up a good account of them at last to Him?

Do I not ‘neglect to stir up any of those gifts, which God has given me, for the edification of the church?’ 1 Tim. 4.14 and 2 Tim. 1.6.

Do I seek, as far as possible, to know the state and the wants of my auditory, that I ‘may speak a word in season?’ Is. 1.4.

Is it my chief design, in choosing my subject, and composing my sermon, to edify the souls of men?

Am I determined to take all proper opportunities to preach the word in season and out of season, that is, in the parlour or the kitchen, or the workhouse, as well as in the pulpit; and seek opportunities to speak a word for Christ, and help forward the salvation of souls? 2 Tim. 4.2.

Do I labour to show my love to our Lord Jesus, by ‘feeding the sheep and the lambs of his flock?’ John 21.16,17.

Am I duly solicitous for the success of my ministry? and do I take all proper methods to inquire what effects my ministry has had on the souls of those who hear me?