We will be showing the movie Amazing Grace this Sunday evening at 6 pm. It is the story of the life of William Wilberforce, the leader of the abolitionist movement in England during the latter 1700's and early 1800's.
The following article is reprinted with permission. The link below is to the original posting. I want to thank the Gospel Coalition for granting permission to post this article on my blog.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/the_transforming_power_of_the_gospel
Let’s face it, no one reads a blog like this unless he (or she!) is deeply interested in and committed to growing in their own personal piety and helping others do the same. Because we love the Lord, we all want to grow into men and women who reflect His life more perfectly. For us, the question isn’t: “Should we seek to grow in holiness?” but rather, “How do we grow in holiness?” Further, most of us would answer the “How?” question in this way, “We grow in holiness through the gospel.” And while that’s the right answer, the possibility exists that it’s not specific enough to be of real help. And so, we talk about the gospel, we want to point others to the gospel, but perhaps we’re not seeing how the specifics of the gospel connect to our daily struggles with unbelief and idolatry…our sin. So let’s take a moment to consider exactly how the individual truths of the gospel change us.
When we talk about the gospel, we’re not talking only about what Jesus did on Calvary – although, of course, it would be impossible to over-exaggerate the importance of his substitutionary death. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes that the gospel message is not only the cross, it is the incarnation, the sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return of Jesus Christ. It is the story of the incarnation (God without flesh cannot die, v. 3), his sinless life (the death of another sinner cannot atone “for our sins” v. 3), his substitutionary death and burial in our place, his bodily resurrection procuring our justification and freedom from bondage to sin (v. 1-2, 4), his ascension and reign (revealing Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus, v. 8) and His victorious return for his bride (v. 24-25). Incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return: the gospel.
It is this entire gospel message that Paul says is “of first importance.” The gospel is more than just the cross. When we fail to appreciate all the other facets of the good news about His work, we’ll be tempted to use Jesus’ suffering on the cross to motivate obedience. In other words, we’ll be tempted to feel sorry for the victim Jesus and try to guilt ourselves (and others) into submission, rather than seeing the victor, Jesus, who acted purposefully throughout His existence and acts powerfully upon us to transform us.
Briefly, here’s how the whole gospel message might impact me when I’m struggling with my own unbelief, idolatry and sin: Let’s say that I’ve got company coming over for dinner and I realize that I’m running low on table salt. I calculate the time I need to get to the store, get the salt and get home so that I can be a gracious, organized hostess (idols everywhere here). I jump in my car, race up to the store, grab the salt and run to the Quick Check Out line only to find myself stuck behind another woman who obviously didn’t read the “10 Items or Less” sign. Instantly I’m angry and then, because I know that my anger is sinful, I feel guilty and then, because I remember all the times I’ve failed like this, I despair. Now, what are my options?
Option #1: If I’m a Happy Moralist, I’ll assure myself that my anger is “righteous” because the person in front of me is not obeying the rules like I am. I’ll remain angry but feel better about it.
Option #2: If I’m a Sad Moralist, I’ll recognize that my anger isn’t righteous because I’m not loving my neighbor and I’m angry because of my idolatry. I’ll feel both guilty and angry but now I’ll despair because it seems as though I’ll never change.
Option #3: If I’ve been thinking about the cross without considering the rest of the gospel, I’ll despair even more because I’ll know that Jesus suffered for this sin and I’ll be sad, guilty and despairing thinking about how much pain He endured on my account. In this case the gospel doesn’t elevate my soul, it crushes me.
Option #4: If I’m seeking to live in the light of the whole gospel, my heart will be transformed in these ways:
It is the whole message of the gospel that has the power to transform impatient, guilty, selfish, despairing idolaters into free and joyful worshippers of the Living God. The whole message of the gospel includes His incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return. Seeing Jesus and His glorious work is the only power strong enough to transforms us from “one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18) or as John Owen wrote, “Here in this life, beholding the glory of the Lord [true believers] are changed into his likeness. Hereafter they will be like Him for they will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).
[Note: John Owen quote from The Glory of Christ (London: Grace Publications Trust, 1987), 8.]
Elyse Fitzpatrick has been counseling women since 1989. She holds a certificate in biblical counseling from CCEF (San Diego) and an M.A. in Biblical Counseling from Trinity Theological Seminary, and is a member of the National Association of Nouthetic Counseling. Elyse is the author of numerous books including the award winning Women Helping Women; Love to Eat, Hate to Eat; Overcoming Fear, Worry and Anxiety; When Good Kids Make Bad Choices (each from Harvest House Publishers); Idols of the Heart; The Afternoon of Life; and A Steadfast Heart from P & R Publishers; Helper By Design and Will Medicine Stop the Pain? from Moody Publishers; and Uncommon Vessels (Leader's Guide and Member's Manual) from Timeless Texts. Her latest titles, Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life; Comforts From the Cross: Daily Celebrations of the Gospel; and Counsel From the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ are available by Crossway Books. A frequent speaker at women's conferences, she has been married for over thirty years and has three adult children and six grandchildren. To learn more about the ministry of Elyse Fitzpatrick visit Counsel From the Cross Ministries.
The story of Jonah shows us that the gospel—the good news that God relentlessly pursues sinners in order to rescue them—is just as much for Christians as it is for non-Christians. Jonah’s life proves this, because Jonah, who knows God, obviously needs divine deliverance as much as anyone else in the story. In fact, his need for rescue gets far more emphasis than anyone else’s. It’s his destitution, not that of the Ninevites, that gets the most play. That alone should be enough to convince us that God’s rescue is a continuing requirement for Christians and non-Christians alike.The article in entirity can be found at:
The gospel isn’t simply a set of truths that non-Christians must believe in order to become saved. It’s a reality that Christians must daily embrace in order to experience being saved. The gospel not only saves us from the penalty of sin (justification), but it also saves us from the power of sin (sanctification) day after day. Or, as John Piper has said, “The cross is not only a past place of objective substitution; it is a present place of subjective execution.” Our daily sin requires God’s daily grace—the grace that comes to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn’t do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.My hope and prayer for all is that we would come to a bigger, better, deeper, and brighter understanding of this remarkable Story and its infallible Hero!
Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you’ll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren’t heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose), they get afraid and run away. At times, they’re downright mean.
No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne–everything–to rescues the ones he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!
You see, the best thing about this Story is–it’s true.
There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling on Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.
It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in the puzzle–the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.
View and remember Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
The following is from Pastor Wyman Richardson, First Baptist Church, Dawson, Georgia.
An Open Letter to Christian Parents Concerning Athletics, the Church, and Your Children
By Wyman Richardson
"These people relate to the church probably just as positively as they do to sports...only less actively." Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1928
Dear Christian Parents,
This letter is not intended to (1) create guilt, (2) return to "the Law", or (3) attack anybody. Rather, it's just my attempt to get at and explore a phenomenon which I and pretty much every single pastor I ask about these things are curious about.
Let me preface this letter with the following statements that I really do believe are true. Athletics are good, build character, and help children grow. If our kids commit to a team, they should be taught to stand by their commitments. I played sports in school (albeit, poorly!), and am glad I did. My daughter plays, and I'm glad she does.
With that being said, let me ask some question that have arisen from lots of conversations, lots of watching and listening closely to people, and lots of (frankly) grief over what I think is a damaging trend among Christian parents and their children concerning athletics and the body of Christ. My point here is not that you must be at church every single time the doors open or you are a "bad Christian." Far from it. My point is not that your child should or must always choose a church event over an athletic event. Far from it. In fact, my point is simply that there is now an observable, verifiable shift in priorities among Christian parents that is overall damaging to our kids, to the body of Christ, to our corporate and individual witnesses, and to our and our children's spiritual development.
With that, some questions to (honestly) ask yourself.
As I say, just something I'm curious about arising from something I (and others) have been observing.
Most Sincerely,
Wyman Richardson
Paul Tripp- What makes "What Did You Expect?" different than other marriage books from Crossway on Vimeo.
“By his own account, my husband of 13 years and high-school sweetheart, was first exposed to pornography around age ten. He viewed it regularly during high school and college — and, although he tried hard to stop, continued to do so throughout the course of our marriage…
“Then one morning around 2am he called, intoxicated, from his office to announce that he had ‘developed feelings’ for someone new. The woman he became involved with was an unemployed alcoholic with all the physical qualities of a porn star — bleached blond hair, heavy makeup, provocative clothing… Within a few months he had moved permanently out of the home he shared with me and our five young children. In retrospect, I believe he succumbed to the allure of the secret fantasy life he had been indulging since his adolescence…
“I will never know with full certainty that pornography caused my husband to abandon me and our children. Although I loved him deeply, I was far from a perfect wife. In retrospect, I wish I had understood what he was experiencing and had acted to help him.”
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." (Deut. 6:4).The Gospel of Mark is written to Gentiles. The above verse is included in Mark because most Gentiles would not be as familiar with the two Great Commandments and its' context. Matthew (Matt. 22:34-40) does not include Deuteronomy 6:4 in quoting the two Great Commandments because Matthew is written primarily to Jews who would be familiar with it (Deut. 6:4).
Mark 12:29-31 (ESV) Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”These verses, originally found in Deuteronomy, call me to make God my single focus above all. Verse 29, "the LORD is one" is a reminder of the first of the Ten Commandments, "You shall have no other gods before me." (Exo 20:3 NIV) The people surrounding Israel, other nations or tribes worshipped many gods. God's people are called to worship Him alone.
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; {38} and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Mat 10:37-38 NIV)The Gospel News is that God calls me to love Him supremely above all persons and things and He alone stands ready to supremely satisfy me. The Good News is that God - Jesus Christ is Himself the Good News and He gives himself to me to be supremely satisfied forever (John 4:10-14).
During his March 2, 2010 radio broadcast, Beck said this:
I beg you, look for the words "social justice" or "economic justice" on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If I'm going to Jeremiah's Wright's church? Yes! Leave your church. Social justice and economic justice. They are code words. If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, "Excuse me are you down with this whole social justice thing?" I don't care what the church is. If it's my church, I'm alerting the church authorities: "Excuse me, what's this social justice thing?" And if they say, "Yeah, we're all in that social justice thing," I'm in the wrong place.
You are not “owed” a virgin because you are. Your sexual purity wasn’t part of a quid pro quo in which God would guarantee you a sexually unbroken man. Your sexual purity is your obligation as a creature of God. And you have rebelled at other points, and been forgiven. If you believe the gospel, you believe the gospel for everyone, and not just for yourself.
If your future husband is repentant, and forgiven, and yet you are “tortured” by the thoughts of his past, then the issue for you is one of personal pride and a refusal to see oneself as a gospel-forgiven sinner.
The issue for you with your future husband is discerning whether there are ongoing patterns, whether he agrees with God about the severity of this sin, and whether he has been cleansed from it by Golgotha Hill blood and Garden Tomb power.
Jesus was a virgin. His Bride wasn’t. He loved us anyway.
"I believe that Adam, before his fall, had such freedom of will, that he might choose either good or evil; but that, since the fall, no child of man has a natural power to choose anything that is truly good. Yet I know (and who does not?) that man has still freedom of will in things of indifferent nature" (Works of Wesley, 10:350).
"Since mankind is hopelessly dead in trespasses and sins and can do nothing to obtain salvation, God graciously restores all men sufficient ability to make a choice in the matter of submission to Him. . . . In His foreknowledge He perceives what each one will do with this restored ability, and elects men to salvation in harmony with His knowledge of their choice of Him" (Lectures in Systematic Theology [Eerdmans, 1949], pp. 344-45).
"Insofar as grace precedes and prepares free will it is called prevenient. Insofar as grace accompanies and enables human willing to work with divine willing, it is called cooperating grace" (Transforming Grace, 47).
"To no one, not even the recalcitrant unfaithful, does God deny grace sufficient for
salvation" (48).
"Actual grace both removes the obstacles to salvation and enables the will to act in a salutary way. Grace works negatively to remedy the infirmity resulting from sin, and positively to elevate the soul to salutary acts, so that the soul may be enabled to receive God's own justifying action manifested on the cross and persevere in this reception" (57-8).
Prevenient grace, says Oden, is responsible for "healing the nature vitiated by original sin and restoring the liberty of the children of God" (58). Again,
"God antecedently wills that all should be saved, but not without their own free acceptance of salvation. Consequent to that exercise of freedom, God promises unmerited saving mercies to the faithful and fairness to the unfaithful" (77).
"God provides sufficient grace to every soul for salvation . . . . Those who cooperate with sufficient grace are further provided with the means for grace to become effective" (77).
First, the doctrine of prevenient grace, on which the Arminian view of conditional election is based, is not found in Scripture. See "Does Scripture Teach Prevenient Grace in the Wesleyan Sense?" by Tom Schreiner in The Grace of God, The Bondage of the Will (Baker, 1995), 2:365-82.
Appeal is often made to John 1:9 "'There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.' This could as easily refer to (1) the influence of common grace, or (2) the operation of general revelation. Schreiner contends that 'enlighten' does not refer to inward illumination of the heart/mind/will, but rather means to expose the moral state of the heart, i.e., to shed light upon someone so as to reveal and uncover (see 3:19-21).
Second, consider Romans 8:29, a text on which many Wesleyan-Arminians base their view of divine election because of the reference to God's 'foreknowledge'. But note well that there is no reference in the text to faith or free will as that which God allegedly foresees in men. It is not what he foreknows but whom.
Third, this view assumes that fallen men are able and willing to believe in Christ apart from the regenerating grace of God, a notion that Paul has denied in Rom. 3:10-18.
Fourth, would not this view give man something of which he may boast? Those who embrace the gospel would be deserving of some credit for finding within themselves what others do not.
Fifth, this view suspends the work of God on the will of man. It undermines the emphasis in Romans 8:28-38 on the sovereign and free work of God who foreknows, predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies. It is God who is responsible for salvation, from beginning to end.
Sixth, even if one grants that God elects based on his foreknowledge of man's faith, nothing is proven. For God foreknows everything. One must determine from Scripture how man came by the faith that God foreknows. And the witness of Scripture is that saving faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8-10; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:1; 2 Tim. 2:24-26; Acts 5:31; 11:18).
"What did He foresee about my faith? Did He foresee that I should get that faith myself, and that I should believe on Him of myself? No; Christ could not foresee that, because no Christian man will ever say that faith came of itself without the gift and without the working of the Holy Spirit. I have met with a great many believers, and talked with them about this matter; but I never knew one who could put his hand on his heart, and say, 'I believed in Jesus without the assistance of the Holy Spirit'.
Jerry Bridges in The Gospel For Real Life:The secret of a believer's holy walk is his continual recurrence to the blood of the Surety, and his daily (communion) with a crucified and risen Lord. All divine life, and all precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness, spring from the cross. All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of the cross is nothing better than Pharisaism. If we would be holy, we must get to the cross, and dwell there; else, notwithstanding all our labour, diligence, fasting, praying and good works, we shall be yet void of real sanctification, destitute of those humble, gracious tempers which accompany a clear view of the cross.
False ideas of holiness are common, not only among those who profess false religions, but among those who profess the true. The love of God to us, and our love to Him, work together for producing holiness. Terror accomplishes no real obedience. Suspense brings forth no fruit unto holiness. No gloomy uncertainty as to God's favour can subdue one lust, or correct our crookedness of will. But the free pardon of the cross uproots sin, and withers all its branches. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this...
Free and warm reception into the divine favour is the strongest of all motives in leading a man to seek conformity to Him who has thus freely forgiven him all trespasses.
Paul said the same thing succinctly when he wrote, "For Christ's love compels us" (2 Cor 5:14). To be compelled is to be highly motivated. That is, we are to be motivated by Christ's love for us. And where do we learn of His love? Where do we hear Him say, "I love you"? It is in the gospel (!)
