Luther's If-Then

Luther:

"He died for me; he made his righteousness mine and made my sin his own; and if he made my sin his own, then I do not have it, and I am free."

- Quoted in "The Cross He Bore", Frederick S. Leahy, p. 42

Homosexuality and the gospel

The normalization of homosexuality simply cannot be accepted by anyone committed to biblical Christianity. The new secular orthodoxy demands that Christians abandon the clear teachings of Scripture, and Christians must understand that the sinfulness of all homosexual behaviors is not only a matter of biblical authority, but also of the Gospel. To deny that sin is sin is to deny our need for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians cannot accept any teaching that minimizes sin, for it is the knowledge of our sin that points us to our need for atonement, salvation, and the forgiveness of that sin through the cross of Jesus Christ.

- Albert Mohler, "Reparative Therapy, Homosexuality, and the Gospel of Jesus"

Free Gospel, Sanctifying Gospel, Gracious Gospel, Godliness

I just read a sermon entitled "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection" by Thomas Chalmers. You can read it here. I highly recommend printing that out, taking about an hour to read it (for meditation and because the English is old), and then hopefully you will be exhorted, encouraged, and amazed as I was after reading it.

To go with the sermon, I made this graphic from a quote near the end:

Feel free to download and share. (Click the image first and then save it.)

The grand secret of true obedience

Here's a a great quote from J.C. Ryle expounding on a great truth about God and loving him. This has taken me quite a while to grasp.

Love is the grand secret of true obedience to God. When we feel towards Him as children feel towards a dear father, we shall delight to do His will. We shall not find His commandments grievous, and work for Him like slaves under fear of the lash. We shall take pleasure in trying to keep His laws, and mourn when we transgress them. None work so well as those who work out of love. The fear of punishment, or the desire of reward, are principles of far less power. They do the will of God best, who do it from the heart.

 (via J.C. Ryle Quotes)

Also, I realize I haven't blogged in a while...I plan to change that when grad school ends for the semester and then in totality in May.

Reformation Day

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg cathedral, marking the traditional start date of the Reformation. This day, 493 years later, I enjoyed reading a brief sermon by Luther himself.

Here's a few notable quotes from Luther on 1 Thessalonians 4:1-7.

Whatever Christians do, it should be willing service, not compulsory; but when a command is given, it should be in the form of exhortation or entreaty

Unchasity does not come within the limits of Christian liberty and privilege, nor does God treat the offender with indulgence and impunity.

Happy Reformation Day!

No more hiding

“The gospel is the best news we could ever hear. The gospel is about Jesus Christ and his power to transform our lives and relationships, communities, and ultimately, the nations. Through this gospel, we are freely given a new identity — an identity not based on race, social class, gender, a theological system, or a system of rules and regulations. Rather it is a new and perfect identity based solely on faith in Jesus — an identity that defines every aspect of our lives. We are now forgiven, righteous, adopted, accepted, free, and heirs to everything that belongs to Christ. So even our sin, weakness, and failures do not define who we are. Because of this good news, we no longer have to hide from our sin and pretend that we have it all together, for God knows and loves us as we are, not as we pretend to be.”

- Neil H. Williams, Gospel Transformation, 2nd ed. (Jenkintown, Pa.; World Harvest Mission, 2006), i.

(via: OFI)

Not a good or bad frame

'But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, is my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a-doing, God could not say of me, He wants my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever (Heb. 13.8). Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed, I was loosed from my affliction and irons, my temptations had fled away; so that, from that time, those dreadful scriptures of God left off to trouble me now; now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God.'

 - passage from John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress

Do you live in misery or happiness* based on your frame of heart for any given day? Any given week? Any time of married life? Any time of material abundance? Any given "Christian life"?

I have a dare which I issue (you can call it a triple-dog dare if you wish): "dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name." Lean on his name, which may I remind you, never changes, never has, and never will. Jesus' righteousness for you does not change. You do. You change every moment. Speaking for myself, I can hardly keep a train of thought in the station of my mind for more than a few moments. So trust in Jesus.

I dare you.

*happiness does not equal joy

Joy in the sovereign hand

Let us settle it in our minds that, whether we like it or not, the sovereignty of God is a doctrine clearly revealed in the Bible, and a fact clearly to be seen in the world. Upon no other principle can we ever explain why some members of a family are converted, and others live and die in sin--why some quarters of the earth are enlightened by Christianity, and others remain buried in heathenism. One account only can be given of all this. All is ordered by the sovereign hand of God. Let us pray for humility in respect of this deep teaching. Let us remember that our life is but a vapor, and that our best knowledge compared to that of God is unmixed folly. Let us be thankful for such light as we enjoy ourselves, and use it diligently while we have it.
 - J.C. Ryle (HT: J.C. Ryle Quotes)

I think Ryle's statement regarding how we confront the sovereignty of God is complemented well by the below quote on how we are to be affected by the sovereignty of God

From my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty, in choosing whom he would to eternal life, and rejecting whom he pleased; leaving them eternally to perish, and be everlastingly tormented in hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me. But I remember the time very well, when I seemed to be convinced, and fully satisfied, as to this sovereignty of God, and his justice in thus eternally disposing of men, according to his sovereign pleasure. But never could give an account, how, or by what means, I was thus convinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a long time after, that there was any extraordinary influence of God's Spirit in it; but only that now I saw further, and my reason apprehended the justice and reasonableness of it. However, my mind rested in it; and it put an end to all those cavils and objections. And there has been a wonderful alteration in my mind, in respect to the doctrine of God's sovereignty, from that day to this; so that I scarce ever have found so much as the rising of an objection against it, in the most absolute sense, in God's strewing mercy to whom he will shew mercy, and hardening whom he will. God's absolute sovereignty and justice, with respect to salvation and damnation, is what my mind seems to rest assured of, as much as of any thing that I see with my eyes; at least it is so at times. But I have often, since that first conviction, had quite another kind of sense of God's sovereignty than I had then. I have often since had not only a conviction, but a delightful conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared exceeding pleasant, bright, and sweet. Absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God. But my first conviction was not so.
 - Jonathan Edwards (HT: Grace Online Library)
(Emphasis added.)

"The fire has burned on"

As sinners we deserved condemnation in our unregenerate state in spite of the struggle. But God offers pardon “to those in Christ Jesus”. This is Paul’s Gospel. The fire has burned on and around the Cross of Christ. There and there alone is safety. Those in Christ Jesus can lead the consecrated, the crucified, the baptized life.

 - A.T. Robertson

(HT: PRECEPTAUSTIN)

Recompense for Piety

This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts. (Psalm 119:56 ESV)

56. This was done to me. I doubt not that the prophet, under the term זאת, zoth, comprehends all God’s benefits; but as he comes before God in relation to blessings then being enjoyed by him, he speaks as if he were pointing to them. Hence, under this term is included an acknowledgment of all the benefits with which he had been crowned; or, at all events, he declares that God had borne testimony, by some signal deliverance, to the integrity of his conduct. He does not boast of meriting any thing, as the Pharisees in our day do, who, when they meet with any such matter in Scripture, pervert it to prove the merit of works. But the prophet had no other design, than to set himself in diametrical opposition to the despisers of God, who either impute all their prosperity to their own industry, or ascribe it to chance, and malignantly overlook or conceal God’s superintending providence. He therefore calls upon himself to return to God, and invites others to follow his example, and exhorts them, that as God is an impartial judge, he will always reserve a recompense for piety. Probably, too, by this holy boasting he repels the base slanders of the ungodly, by which we lately saw he was grievously assailed.

 - John Calvin on Psalm 119:56, via CCEL

A new heart from heaven

8. Then follows, Harden not your hearts By which words is intimated that our rebellion against God flows from no other fountain than willful wickedness, by which we obstruct the entrance of his grace, We have indeed by nature a heart of stone, and there is in all an innate hardness from the womb, which God alone can mollify and amend. That we, however, reject the voice of God, it happens through a spontaneous obstinacy, not through an external impulse, a fact of which every one is a witness to himself. Rightly, then, does the Spirit accuse all the unbelieving that they resist God, and that they are the teachers and authors of their own perverseness, so that they can throw the blame on none else. It is hence, however, absurdly concluded that we have, on the other hand, a free power to form the heart for God’s service; nay rather, it must ever be the case with men, that they harden their heart until another be given them from heaven; for as we are bent towards wickedness, we shall never cease to resist God until we shall be tamed and subdued by his hand.

 - John Calvin on Hebrews 3:8

Quote of the week

I hereunto decree that every Monday a uplifting and challenging quote that forces the reader to ponder the goodness of the gospel will be hereunto posted on this blog. 

Yes I know this is coming out Tuesday, but I was at a great concert last night a good jog away from home so I wasn't able to get this out.

The quote this week is from the blog Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology written by Dane Ortlund. I love the quote Dane mentions (a quote within a quote blogpost?!?) and his thoughts after it. What incomprehensible love the Savior has for his own.  
Everything after this sentence is from Dane's blog:

The reformer, preaching on John the Baptist's declaration in John 1, 'Behold the Lamb of God'--

May you ever cherish and treasure this thought. . . . It would be spectacular and amazing, prompting all the world to open its ears and eyes, mouth and nose in uncomprehending wonderment, if some king's son were to appear in a beggar's home to nurse him in his illness, wash off his filth, and do everything else the beggar would have to do. Would this not be profound humility? Any spectator . . . of this honor would feel impelled to admit that he had seen or experienced something unusual and extraordinary, something magnificent.

But what is a king or an emperor compared with the Son of God? Furthermore, what is a beggar's filth or stench compared with the filth of sin which is ours by nature, stinking a hundred times worse and looking infinitely more repulsive to God than any foul matter found in a hospital?

And yet the love of the Son of God for us is of such magnitude that the greater the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us.

--Martin Luther, LW 22:166

Did you get that? Everything in us screams: The less the filth and stench of our sins, the more He befriends us. After all, that's how we all function on a horizontal level, with other people. But Luther is right. The more sin, the more cleansing friendship. The only thing that can stop grace is our own self-________: self-reliance, self-justification, self-improvement.

Open it up. Let grace flood in. That's all it takes. We have but to ask. Grace is spring-loaded, ready to overwhelm us as soon as we stop playing the game.

We all die

The girl on the right in the above photograph is 13 years old. The girl on the left is 16 years old.

...Huh?

Brooke Greenberg, pictured above with her sister has an unknown genetic condition that has caused her physical development to never move past infancy. The authors of the article reporting on this wild phenomenon quoted a team of doctors studying Brooke's strange case and they have noted:

"Just possibly [studying Brooke] could give us an opportunity to answer the question of why we are mortal."

"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." - Romans 5:12

Gospel Joy

"Joy is the result of true acceptance of the gospel; but not the first result. Without consciousness of sin and apprehension of judgment there is no conversion."

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 8, page 145.

"And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away." Mark 4:16-17

 Joy apart from a knowledge of transgressions and sins against God and the corresponding guilty verdict before his law belies true salvation.True, gospel joy comes indeed when we are struck to the heart with guilt and conviction for our sins against God and then, by a miracle of the Lord, our eyes are opened to see the mercies of Christ Jesus. Such a joy will endure for it is founded on Christ himself.

Joy apart from a knowledge of sin is indeed nebulous and ultimately fruitless. Find true joy in the Gospel.

The Sweet Doctrine of Justification

From time to time (i.e. often) I will be posting a quote from Of First Importance, a blog that is solely dedicated to that which is "of first importance", the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“The gospel teaches that what could not be found in us and was to be sought in another, could be found nowhere else than in Christ, the God-man… who taking upon Himself the office of surety most fully satisfied the justice of God by His perfect obedience and thus brought to us an everlasting righteousness by which alone we can be justified before God.”

 - Francis Turretin, Justification (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, year not available), 29.