"I consider myself to be a Christian first..."

Reformed and Evangelical
by Lee Irons

It’s good to see that there are still some Reformed people these days who embrace the label “evangelical” (see the posts by Stephen Nichols and Sean Lucas on the Ref21 site). I don’t sympathize with the Reformed trend that utterly scorns and detests the label. I have no desire to set myself apart as a “Reformed Confessionalist” who has nothing in common with evangelicalism. This separatist attitude is wrong for several reasons:

(1) It smacks of spiritual pride and elitism. I consider myself to be a Christian first, then a Protestant, then an evangelical, and only then Reformed. To exalt ”Reformed” über alles is to downplay our central identity as Christians. To exalt the Reformed confessions is to downplay the primary New Testament confession that “Jesus is Lord.” I’m not a Reformed person who happens to be a Christian. I’m a blood-bought Christian who happens to believe in the Reformed understanding of the gospel. And I do not view myself as a superior Christian for having this belief. It is only by the grace of God that I understand what I do of the grace of God, and even then I betray it all too often in my practice.
read the whole thing

the way God gives faith

"In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent — the act of believing — from man’s choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself."

- Canons of Dordt, article 14

Not only does this quote from the Canons distinguish historic Calvinism from Arminianism, but biblical Christianity from all other religions, i.e Rome, Mormonism, the Jehova's Witnesses, etc...

the love and life of Christ

"The love of Christ for us is to be held forth as the great constraining motive to religion, and the life of Christ as the bright, engaging pattern of it."

- Thomas Foxcroft, The Gospel Ministry

muppet gangstaaaaaz

And if you think these guys aren’t the Original Original Gangstaz, then you never saw what happened to people who dissed Wilkins Coffee.



I spied these on The RiffTrax Blog by Bill Corbett and had to post them myself.

the only people who get better

“The only people who get better are people who know that, if they never get better, God will love them anyway.”

—Steve Brown, A Scandalous Freedom (West Monroe, LA: Howard Books, 2004), 68-69

all they need is their need

Commenting on Romans 4:5 John H. Gerstner writes:

"If men will only be convinced that they have no righteousness that is not like filthy rags; if men will see that there is no one who does good, not even one; if men will see that they are all shut up under sin--then there will be nothing to prevent their everlasting salvation. All they need is their need. All they must have is nothing. All that is required is acknowledgment of guilt. Just confess your sins and repent of them.

But, alas, sinners cannot part with their so-called "virtues." They have none that are not imaginary, but they are very real to them. So grace becomes unreal. The real grace of God they spurn in order to hold on to their own illusory virtues. Their eyes are fixed on a mirage, so they will not drink real water. They die of thirst with water all around them."

Romans 4:5 "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."

sinclair ferguson on indicatives

I ran across this great quote over at Miscellanies : “The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made in Christian ministry. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our preaching our indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our teaching on holiness becomes a whip or a rod to beat our people’s backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we ourselves have seen. We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. … Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people. This is the Father’s purpose, the Son’s purchase and the Spirit’s ministry.”

- Sinclair Ferguson, message from the 2007 Banner of Truth Conference, Our Holiness: The Father’s Purpose and the Son’s Purchase.

the empire strikes back (in 60 seconds)

what brings you comfort?

... is it good health? Knowing your medical insurance is taken care of? Your 401K is growing? Your car is working? Your family is healthy?

These things bring me comfort. But the ultimate comfort (even when the above don't go as planned) is knowing I am a son of God:

Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?

Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

So, I have supreme comfort knowing:

- I don't have to worry about controlling my destiny,
- I'm a citizen of Jesus' Kingdom,
- My sins are paid for,
- The Devil can't hurt me,
- The law can't condemn me,
- I'm in the will of God,
- He saved me, and that's supreme,
- I have assurance by His Spirit that I'll live forever with Him,
- He has turned my heart of stone to a willing and thankful heart for Him!

Now THAT'S comfort my friend.

3 great points on saving faith

by Sinclair Ferguson

1. Saving faith boasts of nothing in itself, but everything in Christ.

2. Saving faith never rests on sacraments to make a difference, yet ever feeds on them for spiritual blessing.

3. Saving faith excludes our obedience from justification, but marvelously fulfills it in sanctification.

john piper on temptation and the new creation

I have mixed feelings about this posting from John Piper. On the one hand, it's encouraging to hear this personal story, where the normal temptations of the flesh had no hold on him, due to his contemplation of the things of God, specifically the anticipation of the new creation.

However, the danger in listening to this audio out of context might lead people to believe that all you have to do is find the right thing to meditate on, and all your temptations will go away. The reality is that while God may grant us temporary abatement from the wiles of our flesh, it's never permanent. Our focus should not be on our victories, but on Christ's victory. This life if fraught with sin, temptation, failure, pain, etc. The list goes on. But our hope is that ONE DAY, all that will be taken away permanently by God at the consumation. Does sanctification occur in us? Yes, but it's imperfect and very slow. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

Thoughts?

growth together by edmund clowney

The life of holiness is the life of faith in which the believer, with a deepening knowledge of his own sin and helpless apart from Christ, increasingly casts himself upon the Lord, and seeks the power of the Spirit and the wisdom and comfort of the Bible to battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. It is not a lonely or cheerless struggle, for Christ gives the Spirit to the members of his body to help one another. Even suffering can be borne with joy, for the Christian walks in the steps of Jesus Christ who takes us by the hand. Maturing in holiness means maturing in love, love that knows God’s love poured out in our hearts, and answers with love that tastes the goodness of the Lord.

Growth in true holiness is always growth together; it takes place through the nurture, the work and worship of the church. - Edmund Clowney, The Church, pg. 89.

by, from, for

A quote sent to me by my friend got me to thinking. Here's the quote:

"All happy people are grateful. Ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that being unhappy leads people to complain, but it s truer to say that complaining leads to people becoming unhappy." - Dennis Prager

I responded, "That is a good quote... We as Christians ought to be the most grateful people on earth!"

Why? Because we've been saved by God, from God, for God:

BY God - "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" - Eph 2:8

FROM God - "Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!" - Rom 5:9

FOR God - "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" - 2 Cor 5:18

*photo by Harold Davis

the promise-driven life

by Michael Horton

"Christ lived the purpose-driven life so that we would inherit his righteousness through faith and be promise-driven people in a purpose-driven world. What are you driven by? The last time I was sick, it was a Saturday and I flipped on the TV for an extraordinary long time. The whole day was exercise equipment, how to become real-estate rich with no money down, and Suze Orman gave me her steps to financial security. As much as we all make sport of this sort of thing, it attracts us. That's because we are "wired" for law: tell me what to do and I'll get it done. That is not just the American spirit, but it is human nature..."

read more...

What is the significance of baptism?

by R.C. Sproul

Just as an aside, the word significance has as its root the word sign. A sign is something that points to something beyond itself. We all recognize that whatever baptism signifies, Jesus obviously thought it was very important because he gives a command to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Whatever else it is, baptism is the sign of the new covenant that God makes with his people. We do have the clear mandate in the New Testament that Christians are to be baptized.

I personally do not believe that baptism is essential for salvation. If I believed that, I would think that the thief on the cross who was promised paradise with Jesus would have been disqualified because he obviously didn’t have an opportunity to get baptized. But I do believe that baptism is essential for obedience because Christ commands it. It’s just the same thing as when people say, “Do you have to go to church to go to heaven?” I would say, “Obviously not.” But do you have to go to church to obey Christ? Yes, you do. And if you are not inclined to obey Christ and have no inclination to follow his mandates, that may be a sign that you are not headed for heaven. So church involvement becomes a very serious matter of obedience.

I would say the same about the sacrament of baptism. It’s a sign of the new covenant. It’s a sign of our participation in Jesus, of being partakers in his death and resurrection, which are at the heart of the gospel. It’s also a sign of our cleansing from sin and guilt by the work of Jesus and the washing of regeneration. What we do outwardly with water, the Spirit does inwardly with his grace. So it’s a sign of our cleansing. It’s also a sign of our sanctification. It’s a sign of our baptism of the Holy Spirit. It’s a sign of our being set apart from the world and given the holy task to fulfill the commission that Christ gives to his church.

So there are several things that baptism signifies. I think one of our tendencies is to reduce those to one—making it merely a cleansing rite or merely a sign of empowering by the Holy Spirit—when in fact it is a sacrament that is rich and complex with meaning and significance.

a necessary distinction

A Christian is not someone who slowly "gets the victory" and sins less and less in their life, but rather, one who regularly acknowledges that they are guilty before a holy God; resting solely on His mercy.

"For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." - Psalm 51:3

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Mat 11:28

The Most Attacked Doctrine in the Christian faith

- theexpositor.wordpress.com

Mark Driscoll on “The Shack”

- theexpositor.wordpress.com

the gospel: God centered, free, powerful

www.aomin.org

Christ as Prophet, Priest and King

I read this today and these 3 questions stopped me in my tracks. The answers are simple, beautiful and powerful. Praise your Prophet, Priest and King today.

Children’s Catechism, week 20

Q. 69. Why do you need Christ as a prophet?
A. Because I am ignorant.

Q. 70. Why do you need Christ as a priest?
A. Because I am guilty.

Q. 71. Why do you need Christ as a king?
A. Because I am weak and helpless.