Thankfulness and Praise in Hebrews 1:1

“God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways…” (Hebrews 1:1).

I am thankful God speaks. Who He is and what He demands from His creation (for demanding is His absolute right as Creator) is not left to our imagination or speculation. He reveals Himself and teaches us how to understand all that He has made and done. His speech is a graceful stooping down from the infinite to the finite, from the eternal to this moment. Praise Him, for He speaks.

I am thankful God has preserved a people for Himself through the long ages past. They were just as messed up as we are, Church, but He preserved them and spoke to them and worked through them. To paraphrase Malachi 3:6, He is the One Who does not change. Ever. Because of that the “fathers” were not wiped out (even though they deserved it). And because of that we are not wiped out (even though we deserve it). He is steadfast and faithful, along with being good and gracious. Praise Him Who does not change as the faithful Preserver of His people.

I am thankful that when God spoke through the ages, He used flawed human beings from among His covenant people to give us a providentially arranged and Christ-centered Book without any error or inadequacy. The weird stuff’s there on purpose. So is the challenging stuff. So are the long lists of names and numbers. It all fits together describing His plan to sum up “all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things in the earth” (Ephesians 1:10). I love that plan because it’s far beyond what I can imagine. He “can do all things,” and “no purpose” of His “can be thwarted” (Job 42:2). He has spoken, and it’s perfectly about Christ. Praise Him for pointing us to His Son through the long ages past.

I am thankful for the artful and exquisite tapestry of the Bible, which is narrative, poetry, wisdom, law, and vision. He is the Artist. As if creation wasn’t enough, the magnificence of His Book delights the soul. I’ve spent the year reading Andrew Peterson’s On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness to my children. Finished last night. Tears came to my eyes on the last pages because of the words of a dead father to his eldest son through a letter…what moved me wasn’t words invented by Peterson, but the Scripture those words echoed. The astounding, heart-breaking, soul-healing, mind-training Art of the Absolute. Truth so beautiful and eternal. Praise Him for this.

Snowy mid-November scene on my commute...I never get tired
of seeing His handiwork on my daily drive!

The Mediator's Grace in Our Darkness

“‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan [a Hebrew title meaning, “adversary”] has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’ But he said to Him, ‘Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!’ And He said, "I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me’” (Luke 22:31-34).

The absolute sovereignty of God the Son, especially in the day of His suffering, is something we should not take for granted or overlook in the great drama of the narrative. Though Jesus tells “the chief priests and officers of the temple and elders” that “hour and the power of darkness” (22:53) belongs to them, He is still in total mastery of the moment. He has not laid that lordship down. In fact, as He is at the right hand of the Father, He has been given “all authority...in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). I need this reality as both my foundation and covering every day. So do you.

It’s not this sovereignty, though, that has astounded me afresh this week. I’ve been blessed and – yes – amazed at the grace that comes through the mediation of the great High Priest Jesus Christ.

The adversary, as he did with Job and does with innumerable saints, has demanded the right to test Peter’s faith. This is what he exists to do to the glory of God. “...the Satan’s job, as God’s submissive opposition, is to search men and women to see if there is anyone who is genuinely godly and pious...Satan has a ministry; it is the ministry of opposition, the ministry of insisting that the genuineness of the believer be tested and proved genuine. It is a hostile and malicious ministry, but a necessary ministry for the glory of God...the apostles are to be sifted by Satan, to see if their faith is genuine. And their faith will prove genuine, not least because God the Son prays to God the Father for Peter, and then Peter becomes the instrument to strengthen the faith of the others.”[1]

Peter’s betrayal, the arrest, and the adversary’s sifting of the Lord’s disciples, are all serving the Triune God to His ultimate glory. In every moment.

I taught from this “sifting” passage last month during a memorial service for a death I knew would be a trial to many believers, "so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11). We need to be aware of what is happening to us and through us in the darkness. Scripture alone reveals this to us.

The adversary must still ask for permission from the Lord to test believers. Just as we see with Job, the Lord defines the exact parameters for the sifting operation of the adversary. Jesus doesn’t tell Peter that the adversary’s request has been denied. The “one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5) has prayed that Peter’s “faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” He doesn’t pray for Peter’s comfort, ease, health, wealth, or anything Peter himself might request. He prays for that which is eternally and salvifically important – Peter’s persistent faith. Peter benefits from this, of course (and still is, and always will), but the goal is the Church: “...strengthen your brothers.” It’s about Jesus loving His Church. He intercedes for the saints to the benefit of the saints not for the individual but for the Body.

Peter betrays Jesus three times, just as Jesus foretold (22:54-60). What happens at the end of this narrative is what I want us to see.

There are only two times in Luke-Acts where “the word of the Lord” is “remembered.” At both times Peter is the one remembering, and the difference between the two circumstances is the beautiful testimony to the glory of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.

After Peter denies the Lord three times, “the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had told him, ‘Before a rooster crows today, you will deny Me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly” (22:61,62). The Lord’s word is verified, and Peter is utterly broken. It is “the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10). It is not comfortable, fun, or exalting (by prideful or worldly standards). But this is the “will of God” achieved through the mediation of the Son. Remembering the Word of Christ in the midst of sin results here in brokenness and repentance which leads to (because of the mediatiorial prayer of the Son) salvation by unwavering faith. This is the first time “the word of the Lord” is “remembered” by Peter in Luke-Acts. It’s a great statement of grace. After all, Jesus taught the disciples, “he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God” (12:9). The only thing that can save Peter is grace, and that is abundant through Jesus Christ. Soli gratia.

As marvelous as that event of “remembering...the word of the Lord” is, the second is even greater. Peter has returned to Jerusalem after seeing God bring salvation to Cornelius’ house through the preaching of Christ. This is a new thing; the new covenant Church began out of Jerusalem among the Jewish people. Though Jesus hinted and clearly proclaimed numerous times that it would overflow these ethnic boundaries unto the ends of the earth, it’s still a shock to the Jewish Christians. So Peter addresses the Church in Jerusalem: “...Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, ‘...I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”’” (Acts 11:4,16,17).

The second time Peter “remembered the word of the Lord” it resulted in this: “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’” (11:18).

God is glorified, and the Kingdom of God begins its unstoppable spread through the world and all generations.[2]

Behold the grace of God: the first time Peter remembers the word of the Lord, it brings him to bitter tears; the second time Peter remembers the word of the Lord, it is as he is being used to bring salvation to the nations.

Jesus is still praying for His people:

• “Christ Jesus is He Who died, yes, rather Who was raised, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also intercedes for us” (Romans 8:34).[3]
• “...Jesus...because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens” (Hebrews 8:24-26).

It is the same prayer. We are sifted in this world to show our faith to be true. Peter, who learned this lesson recorded for this long age in the pages of holy Writ, teaches this principle to us in his first letter: “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6,7).

We are sifted and refined through the constant saving prayer of the heavenly High Priest, Who uses even the wicked adversary for our salvation and God’s ultimate glory. Also through His Word, we do not stand alone or for ourselves. As our faith is hardened into the unwavering might of the triumphant saint, we strengthen others, as well. By the Father’s grace through the mediation of the Son, the Church grows not just in spite of the adversary’s work, but instrumentally through it.

God is great, and His grace is amazing.

Rembrandt (1606-1669), The Denial of Saint Peter (1660)

---

[1] Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 42,45,55.

[2] When we read the Kingdom parables of Jesus (and their roots in passages like Ezekiel 31:6; Daniel 4:21), this is the message: it starts small but spreads throughout the world.

[3] I was concerned with the “where” of the Holy Spirit in my last post. We should give attention, as well, to the “where” of the Son in our thinking, praying, singing, and theology. Without Him at the right hand of the Father, His continuing work as High Priest and Mediator is ignored. This is a serious problem, for it is from there that we “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

Keeping the Cross in Sight

I meet on Thursday mornings at a local coffee house with a group of guys. We’re reading through Louis Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. Not always the most exciting reading, but I’ve found it good in my life to always be reading something that’s not easy to read. Kind of like exercise for the brain.

This morning I was driving down the hill from my house toward the highway. We’re at that time of year that I leave before sunrise on Thursdays. A woman was walking up the hill on the sidewalk. I watched as a coyote crossed the road just behind her. She stopped, suddenly realizing that something was behind her. Looking, but not seeing it, she looked back to me and waved. Always good to have company when you suspect something’s stalking you in the twilight. She kept walking. I stopped just past her and watched the coyote for a few moments before heading on to the coffee house. Something ghost-like about a coyote's ability to disappear into the dusk. I thought about the thousands of miles I have run on the trails near our house. I’ve seen several coyotes and snakes and javelina...I wonder what I haven’t seen that has crossed the path just behind me?

This morning we discussed Christ’s atonement for our sins. When we talk about our sin being an offense to a holy God and Christ dying for our sin, sometimes people get the idea that the Father’s an angry old grump and Jesus forced Him to like us. That’s not scriptural.

Berkhof says: “According to Scripture the moving cause of the atonement is found in the good pleasure of God to save sinners by a substitutionary atonement. Christ Himself is the fruit of this good pleasure of God. It was predicted that He would come into the world to carry out the good pleasure of God, ‘and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand,’ Isaiah 53:10. At His birth the angels sang, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men in whom He is well pleased,’ Luke 2:14. The glorious message of John 3:16 is that ‘God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’ Paul says that Christ ‘gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father,’ Galatians 1:4. And again, ‘For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell; and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, Colossians 1:19,20” (italics original).

All those Scripture verses the old Dutchman mentions show us that God the Father loved us and therefore sent His Son to atone for our sins.

More Berkhof...this time his “proofs” for the necessity of the atonement:

1.      It would seem to be the clear teaching of Scripture that God, in virtue of His divine righteousness and holiness, cannot simply overlook defiance to His infinite majesty, but must needs visit sin with punishment. We are told repeatedly that He will by no means clear the guilty, Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Nahum 1:3. He hates sin with a divine hatred; His whole being reacts against it, Psalm 5:4-6; Nahum 1:2; Romans 1:18...the justice of God should be maintained.

2.      This leads right on to the second argument. The majesty and absolute immutability of the divine law as inherent in the very nature of God made it necessary for Him to demand satisfaction of the sinner. The transgression of the law inevitably carries with it a penalty.

3.      The necessity of the atonement also follows from the veracity of God, who is a God of truth and cannot lie. “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent; hath He said it, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?” Numbers 23:19. “Let God be found true,” says Paul, “but every man a liar.” Romans 3:4. When He entered into the covenant of works with man, He decreed that death would be the penalty of disobedience. That principle finds expression in many other words of Scripture, such as Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 6:23. The veracity of God demanded that the penalty should be executed, and if sinners were to be saved, should be executed in the life of a substitute.

4.      The same conclusion may be drawn from the nature of sin as guilt...negatively, it is lawlessness, and positively, transgression of the law of God, and therefore guilt, 1 John 3:4; Romans 2:25,27, and guilt makes one a debtor to the law and requires either a personal or a vicarious atonement.

5.      The amazing greatness of the sacrifice which God Himself provided also implies the necessity of the atonement. God gave His only-begotten Son, to be subjected to bitter sufferings and to a shameful death.

These are all worthy proofs. Concerning #4, it strikes me if people don’t “feel” like sinners, they don’t think they are sinners. “Sin” is determined by a purely horizontal standard, and the horizon these days is as shifty as a mirage. Berkhof reminds us in his fourth proof that God’s Law (as revealed in Scripture) is the standard, not the culture or mass opinion of humanity.

Proof #5 is the most profound. Who, looking at the Son of God on the cross, can feel self-righteous and pure? Despite the foolish “the cross shows our worthiness,” it shows just the opposite. This is why the Gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ is so offensive. You and I were so sinful and unable to save ourselves that it took the giving of the sinless, glorious, beloved, and eternal Son of God in our place to save us. He Who had done no wrong had to entire into our sinful separation from God, crying out on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46//Mark 15:34).

The atonement exalts the Trinity’s great justice and love at the same time.

Berkhof gives this example that highlights both at the same time: “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness...for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:23-26).

I’ve always preferred a verse a few chapters later to illustrate this same point: “...God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Romans 5:8,9). Love and wrath. Together. No contradiction. No paradox. Both held together in the cross of Christ.

Through the eyes of the Law, the Prophets, and the Apostles, stop and take a good look at the cross. Often. Don’t get so busy in your schedule that the scriptural depths of its meaning become just a whisper of a ghost behind you while you’re about your daily business.

Broken Tablets, Broken Society

We’re reading through Jeremiah in Wednesday night Bible study (chapter 5 this week). The more I read the Old Testament, the more I see its similarities with the New Testament. The God of both is the same. His requirements of humanity are the same (belief from the heart in His Word resulting in obedience and faithfulness to Him). His perfect attributes are the same.

This week we saw the parallels between the prophet Jeremiah and the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans. When the first tablet of the Law (our duty to God, Exodus 20:1-11//Deuteronomy 5:6-15) is destroyed, the second tablet (our duty to each other, Exodus 20:12-17//Deuteronomy 5:16-21) crumbles.

The prophet describes the failure of the people in their duty to God:

“Why should I pardon you?

Your sons have forsaken Me

And sworn by those who are not gods” (5:7).

They violated the first three of the Ten Commandments.

Spiritual adultery results in physical adultery. Marriage collapses in the society. The violation of the seventh commandment becomes commonplace, and the people are driven solely by a continual lusting:

“...they committed adultery

and trooped to the harlot’s house.

They were well-fed lusty horses,

Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife” (5:7,8).

Then comes the refrain of this chapter (it’ll occur again in verse 29):

“‘Shall I not punish these people,’ declares the LORD,

‘And on a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?’” (5:9).

Destroy the first tablet of the Law, and the second crumbles. This is exactly as the apostle Paul outlines in Romans 1. With the failure in duty to God (Romans 1:20-23) comes a failure in duty to fellow human (1:24-32). This is why “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (1:18).

Back in Jeremiah 5, we see another example of what Paul teaches in Romans 1. The LORD highlights this same principle using two different examples.

“‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD.

‘Do you not tremble in My presence?

For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,

An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.

Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;

Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.

But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;

They have turned aside and departed’” (5:22,23).

One of the inferences that humanity should universally draw from nature is that of law (which requires a Law-Giver). If there are laws of nature instituted by the Creator of nature, then there are logically laws of morality/ethics instituted by the Creator of humanity. The very fact that humans devise systems of morality/ethics and build laws to reflect those systems is proof of this reality: “...when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:14-16).

The second illustration is still from nature, but it is closer to home and little more practical:

“‘They do not say in their heart,

“Let us now fear the LORD our God,

Who gives rain in its season,

Both the autumn rain and the spring rain,

Who keeps for us

The appointed weeks of the harvest.”

Your iniquities have turned these away,

And your sins have withheld good from you’” (Jeremiah 5:24,25).

From gravity’s effect on bodies of water to the seasonal rains for crops, God’s “invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature” should be “clearly seen, being understood through what has been made” (Romans 1:20). Instead, the people have rebelled against the knowledge of God as it is revealed in creation, and actively and continually “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (1:18). Paul describes this progression exactly as Jeremiah does.

After Jeremiah’s two illustrations from creation (5:22-25), what should we expect to see when people deny the authority of the God of creation? When the first tablet of the Law (our duty to God) is destroyed, the second tablet (our duty to each other) crumbles.

“For wicked men are found among My people,

They watch like fowlers lying in wait;

They set a trap,

They catch men.

Like a cage full of birds,

So their houses are full of deceit;

Therefore they have become great and rich.

They are fat, they are sleek,

They also excel in deeds of wickedness;

They do not plead the cause,

The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;

And they do not defend the rights of the poor” (5:26-28).

With the denial of the first tablet and the crumbling of the second tablet, the refrain from 5:9 returns:

“‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD,

‘On a nation such as this

Shall I not avenge Myself?’” (5:29).

In Jeremiah, this principle is in the context of old covenant Israel. In Romans, this principle is applied to all of humanity. In Athens, Paul had previously described this change: “...having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man Whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30,31).

He is a merciful God. This is seen in the first statement of the Ten Commandments: “I am the LORD your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Exodus 20:2//Deuteronomy 5:6). Break the first tablet, and you destroy this statement of grace. The second tablet (societal stability and safety) cannot be maintained without the first. And it’s all built on the saving God of grace.

It is the Gospel of this God that must be preached again and again by the Church. Without faith in the God Who alone can rescue “us from the domain of darkness,” and transfer “us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13), and the two tablets of the Law built on this gracious Gospel, no other attempts to save a society or nation will be fruitful.

The Gospel of God’s grace→our duty to God→our duty to fellow man. This is the only biblical solution. Therefore, do not forget your calling, Church. Do not cease from giving the call, louder and more frequently: “Now all these things are from God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him Who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

Father, grant the grace of repentance (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25) and bring revival through faith in Your Son alone.

The God of Isaiah and the Gospels Among the Dead

“They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” And he began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the ‘legion’; and they became frightened. Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine. And they began to implore Him to leave their region” (Mark 5:1-17; cf. Matthew 8:24-34; Luke 8:26-39).

The Bible is about Jesus (“All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation,” Baptist Faith & Message 2000, I). We should expect that behind the actions and words of Jesus are shadows, types, and symbols in the Old Testament in which He walks during His time on earth. In fact, the apostle Paul teaches us that we cannot even understand the Old Testament until we read it in Christ: “...until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:14-16; cf. Luke 24:44-49; John 5:39).

In “the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz” (1:1), the Holy Spirit revealed the work of God in Christ reaching out to tomb-dwelling bacon-eaters who didn’t even want Him:

“I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’

To a nation which did not call on My name.

I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,

Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts,

A people who continually provoke Me to My face,

Offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on bricks;

Who sit among graves and spend the night in secret places;

Who eat swine’s flesh [old covenant, Leviticus 11:7//Deuteronomy 14:8; new covenant, Mark 7:19; Acts 10:1-48],

And the broth of unclean meat is in their pots.

Who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me,

For I am holier than you!’

These are smoke in My nostrils,

A fire that burns all the day.” (Isaiah 65:1-5).

The God of Isaiah’s vision is the Christ Who came ashore in “the country of the Gerasenes.” The man possessed by Legion is the focus on the story, but he is merely openly living what was true of all the unclean, spiritually-dead Gerasene residents. God the Son permits the tomb-dweller to recognize Him, ironically via the thousands of demons which inhabited him. The man is released, brought to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, and commissioned as a missionary to the Gerasenes (who asked Christ to leave the area).

“...the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God...for God, Who said [in Genesis 1:2,3], ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One Who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4,6).

The God of the Bible (Old and New Testaments) doesn’t reach out to the clean, the pretty, the moral, the spiritually-open. He saves the filth-eating walking dead through His spotless, blameless, eternally-beloved Son. This is the grace of God. And He hasn’t changed since the pages of Isaiah or the Gospels. Remember that today when the devil tempts you, Church, to think that people of certain nationalities, skin colors, accents, religions, sexual preferences, political parties, economic statuses, etc., cannot be saved as you were by “the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God.”

As you go, proclaim salvation by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Even in the tombs, among the bacon-eaters, and – yes – even among those who want you to disappear from the land.

"Gerasenes," by Abram Gomez

The Difference Is Grace

Thursday morning I got to the coffee shop early. I spoke to the barista about his upcoming international trip and how I handled my vaccinations before my first trip abroad. Like the fellow at the Chinese restaurant here in town, the barista doesn’t even ask my order any more...I guess I'm predictable (caffe americano and a muffin or scone). I like to eat before the rest of the guys arrive. Talking through Berkhof’s a bit easier when I’m not eating. I opened my Bible. The previous evening we’d finished the Revelation in Bible study. While eating, I turned to Revelation and then Isaiah.

“And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

“Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).

(We’d been in Isaiah 54:5-13 the week before while studying Revelation 21:1-22:5.)

I kept reading through Isaiah 55 and came to a passage I’ve quoted countless times over the years:

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.

‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts’” (55:8,9).

Reading it Thursday morning, though, I realized that this passage teaches God’s absolute difference from us as it relates to the Gospel’s free gift.

“‘Everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
And you who have no money,
Come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear, and come to Me.
Hear, and your soul shall live...’

...seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.

‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.

‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:1-3,6-9).

The Gospel is not natural to our fallen race. Every religion other than that of the Bible is works-based. Even the religion of naturalistic evolution is works-based (the strong survive). We believe we must work to save ourselves or to keep ourselves alive in this world. In this belief-system shared by everyone from the Muslim to the atheistic biologist to the Mormon to the Buddhist, human beings stand in solidarity. And God is utterly different. Salvation with human beings is impossible; only God can save (Matthew 19:26//Mark 10:27//Luke 18:27). This is the context of Isaiah 55. The Gospel, or Good News, is that God does the impossible by freely giving a gracious salvation to those who hear His command to repent: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord” (compare with Matthew 3:2,8; 4:17; Mark 1:15; 6:12; Luke 3:8; 5:32; 13:3,5; 24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 17:30; 26:20). He freely gives grace: “...He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon...”

God is different because of grace. We think we must earn our salvation, yet we cannot. We fight His offer of the gift, trying to make Him like us in a million different ways. But it’s a gift. A gift we cannot earn. Ever. This is the absolute difference between God and man, and it is a difference we must accept if we are to be saved.

It is Gospel, or Good News:

• “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith” (Romans 3:22-25).
• “...the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s [Adam] offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned [Adam]. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s [Adam] offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)” (Romans 5:15-17).
• “...the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
• “...by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8).

The Nothing of the Gospel

“Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, ‘This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Simon, I have something to say to you.’ So he said, ‘Teacher, say it.’ ‘There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?’ Simon answered and said, ‘I suppose the one whom he forgave more.’ And He said to him, ‘You have rightly judged.’ Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil. Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.’ Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, ‘Who is this who even forgives sins?’ Then He said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you. Go in peace’” (Luke 7:36-50, N.K.J.V.).

Oh, be careful how you read, hear, and meditate on this narrative, beloved! The easiest thing in the world is to miss the Gospel in it. That doesn’t seem possible, right? There is a woman who is a notorious sinner, broken and adoring Jesus at His feet. Jesus praises her above the religious leader and announces her forgiven. Gospel, right? Not if you miss the most important point.

You see, we’re tempted to give too much value to the woman’s actions (7:38,39,44-46). There is a tendency to see her humble, even humiliating actions as the merit by which she receives her forgiveness. She’s worthy of forgiveness, we all-too-easily consider, because she has abased herself in front of the people in Simon’s house and even Jesus Himself. If we come to that conclusion, though, we miss the Gospel entirely. The woman’s tears, kisses, hair, and perfumed oil do not merit her forgiveness. Not even a little bit. Don’t make bad theology because of the powerful emotional tug of the moment. I fear – given our emphasis on musical/emotional experience in worship and the most popular books Christians are apparently reading – that the dear woman’s actions can be misunderstood as being the ladder on which she is able to climb from the pit of sin up to an intimate relationship with the great Lover of souls, and that’s just not true. In fact, if this is our assumption, we miss the Gospel, and, no matter how sweet the situation is, missing the Gospel is an eternally deadly error.

Merely using our imaginative senses to dwell in the woman’s actions isn’t enough. This will lead to an anti-gospel in which emotional is the new law and spiritual sensuality is the new legalism. Just as in every gathering of the people of God in Christ for worship, the actions of adoration are capable of damning us unless there is doctrinal explanation in the preaching. We have that in this text, too. The guiding principle by which we understand the woman’s actions and the grace Jesus grants her must be His explanatory parable in 7:41,42.

“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

What did the debtors offer to get out of debt? Nothing. “...they had nothing with which to repay.”

As far as the woman’s infinite, eternal debt to God for her sins (her sins before God are unendingly more serious than her reputation in her community for those sins), her tears, hair, kisses, and perfumed oil are “nothing.” Does that seem harsh? If it does, we’ve cleansed the story of the Gospel in our reading of it.

This woman’s actions, no matter how sweet and tender they are, do nothing to gain her forgiveness before the divine Creditor she has offended in her sin. In the same way, there is nothing any of us can do, no matter how good-intentioned or sincerely sentimental or religiously disciplined, to “repay” the debt we owe because of our sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

It is the great grace of the creditor, when he “freely forgave them both,” that is the Gospel in this story. They had “nothing with which to repay,” and he “freely forgave them both.” Anything else is not the Gospel, and will not save.

In response to the graceful forgiveness of the Gospel, which she believed by faith (7:50), she lives out a response by weeping, drying, kissing, and anointing – she “loved much.” Her actions are beautiful, touching, and appropriate to what she has received in the grace of the Gospel.

It is not our adoration that is the saving power of the Gospel, but His kindness on behalf of those who have “nothing with which to repay.”

“...when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).

This is Good News, and merits our own humble acts of love forever and ever. May we love much, for we have been graciously given forgiveness for much.

"The Anointing with Oil and Tears," by Sadao Watanabe (1979)

Grace and Peace Nowhere Else

“John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him Who is and Who was and Who is to come [the Father], and from the seven Spirits Who are before His throne [the N.L.T. renders this “sevenfold Spirit,” based on Isaiah 11:2], and from Jesus Christ [the Son], the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him Who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:4-6, N.K.J.V.).

I did it. I told our Wednesday night Bible study group that I’ll be starting Revelation in a few weeks. It’s been over six years since I taught through it last. It’s time.

The main reason I like teaching through it is because I’m not a fear-monger, and it seems that most Christians regard the Revelation with fear. I remember one church member saying they appreciated how I taught it because I didn’t make it “scary.” It’s a shame that anyone would. Why would anyone teach a Book which begins with a promised blessing (1:3) in a way that specifically takes that blessing away from the reader, hearers, and those who would “obey what it says”?

Anyway, last Thursday morning I got to the coffee shop well before dawn and well before the rest of the men. I needed to allow the caffè americano (my standard for Thursday mornings) time to counter the sinus meds from the night before. I can make coffee at home (and do). One of the main reasons for my Thursday morning routine is now the barista. He’s a (pardon the clichés) free-spirit, New Age, hippy-ish sort of guy. Somewhat older than me. I’ve only seen him in a less-than-happy mood once (and, given the tragic plane crash that had happened near his property, I understood). I like people like that. He knows what I am, what I do, and why I meet with the guys there. It was the first time I’d seen him this New Year. I don’t remember how our conversation ended up the way it did (sinus meds), but he mentioned that all he wanted was a good cup of coffee, family, and friends. Given recent events (I suppose this is a timeless principle, so it doesn’t matter what those are when you’re reading this), I ventured to offer, “and peace?”

“Yes,” my grey pony-tailed friend said, “peace. I think that there’s enough people who’re going to start focusing that the energy will cause a swell of peace soon.”

He talks like that. There’s some native Peruvian folk musician playing guitar in a decidedly non-Western way chanting in the background (I actually like the music).

Revelation doesn’t just begin with the promised blessing of 1:3. This is immediately followed with a benediction and doxology. That benediction begins as so many do in the New Testament, with the inspired writer wishing “grace and peace” to his readers.

Grace and peace.

In this case, the benediction is given from the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who are distinct from one another in Personhood yet are One God. In this, even at the beginning of Revelation, with all of its potentially fearful visions and words, is grace and peace.

We are told by the Qu’ran not to even say the word “Trinity” (“O people of the Book! commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but truth...say not ‘Trinity’: desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is One Allah,” 4.171, Yusef Ali translation). But how can we not? From Him alone is “grace and peace”! In the midst of trials, tribulations, dragons, beasts, warfare, fire, plague, and the very rending of the heavens, it is to He-Who-Is-Three-In-One that we must run! Run. Not just give lip-service to if we happen to sing the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” or the “Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow.” We must run constantly to the God of the Bible, Who is Trinity.

I have stopped wandering heretics from stepping on to my lawn while my children were out playing (2 John 10,11) with the simple confession, “we are trinitarian here.”

I have delighted to find Him on page after page after page in the Bible (not just Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

I have purposed that not just my Bible reading, but my theology, and, even more, my prayers will be directed specifically to this God Who is Three-in-One.

I will not even see His creation without seeing that it is the handiwork of Trinity (“In the beginning God [the Father] created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said [the creative Word, Who is the Son – John 1:1-3]...” [Genesis 1:1-3]).

The earliest known example of someone drawing out what is now known as the "Athanasian Shield" (by Peter of Poitiers, ca. A.D. 1210)

Grace and peace from the Trinity. May we, beloved Church, seek it nowhere else.

The Psalm and the Sacramental Scattering

“Do not slay them, lest my people forget;
Scatter them by Your power,
And bring them down,
O Lord our shield.
For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
Let them even be taken in their pride,
And for the cursing and lying which they speak.
Consume them in wrath, consume them,
That they may not be;
And let them know that God rules in Jacob
To the ends of the earth. Selah” (Psalm 59:11-13, N.K.J.V.).

When we consider the frequency of the verb “forget” in the Old Testament, we learn a bit about it. After the Psalter itself, the verb שכח occurs most in Deuteronomy (covenant renewed after the passing of a faithless generation) and Jeremiah (old covenant broken, new covenant promised). Forgetting is a threat to members of the covenant – the Church. The Psalm prays that unbelievers be scattered and not immediately judged to counter covenant unfaithfulness (forgetting).

The presence of hostile unbelievers as they besiege the camp of believers is sacramental. I’m not saying it is a sacrament (there are only two, baptism and the Lord’s Supper), but that it is sacramental (acts similarly to a sacrament). What do I mean by this?

The Westminster Divines describe a sacrament as that which makes clear “a visible difference between those that belong unto the Church, and the rest of the world” (Westminster Confession of Faith, 27.1) and something to “distinguish them from those who are without” (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q. 162). Further, sacraments confer a “grace” which is “the work of the Spirit,” which contains a “word of institution” or “promise of benefit to worthy receivers” (W.C.F. 27.3). Christ gives a sacrament “to signify, seal, and exhibit unto those that are within the covenant of grace the benefits of His mediation, to strengthen and increase their faith” (W.L.C., Q. 162).

Christ is the lone Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). He is also the eternal Heir to David’s throne (Luke 1:31,32,68-75; Revelation 22:16). The Psalms not only speak of Him (Luke 24:44), but as the inspired songs of the Spirit of Christ, they are the Son’s very prayers.

The Son, then, in Psalm 59, prays that the besiegers do not immediately find destruction, but are scattered. It is the Mediator-King’s prayer on behalf of God’s people. This scattering marks a difference between the Church and the world, since the work of Christ is not to scatter His people, but gather them (Matthew 24:31//Mark 13:27; John 11:52; 2 Thessalonians 2:1). The scattering of the besiegers also strengthens the faith of those in the new covenant, preventing their forgetfulness (Psalm 59:11).

The continual existence of the enemies of the Church (until the last Day) keeps the Church from lapsing into apathetic forgetfulness. For now, the serpent is kept from deceiving “the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war” (Revelation 20:8). In this Age, the Church is gathered and the nations remain scattered by the Psalm 59:11 prayer of the Mediator-King. He does not outright destroy them – otherwise we would be tempted to forget the covenant. The scattering of the enemies is our preservation.

The scattering of the enemies of the Church also serves the Gospel mission of this Age, for the Church is created in every generation out of these scattered enemies. “...when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (Romans 5:10). The Age will one day end. The continued existence of those who hate the Church is one way Christ preserves our faith (so that we do not forget our need for Him) and the means by which the Church is propagated (the Church grows through enemies converted). However, Christ (in Psalm 59:13) also prays for the coming Day of judgment.

Until that Day, we should regard the hatred of the world toward the Church as a gracious reminder of Christ’s sovereign defense and preservation of the Church (the Church outlasts every nation in history, no matter how mighty or determined to destroy the Church that nation is). We do not forget (hear the echoes of the “remembrance” from the Lord’s Supper, Luke 22:19//1 Corinthians 11:24,25) and therefore are held in the new covenant. The continued existence of those who hate us is Christ’s preserving grace to us.

“What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:22-24).

Rather than hand-wringing, give Him thanks and purpose to grow in faithfulness to Him and His mission (to see some from out of His enemies saved). Instead of scattering (a sign of judgment from the Mediator-King), let us gather in Him.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:23-25).

Choking on the Psalm

“O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger,

Nor chasten me in Your wrath.

Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am pining away;

Heal me, O LORD, for my bones are dismayed.

And my soul is greatly dismayed;

But You, O LORD - how long?

Return, O LORD, rescue my soul;

Save me because of Your lovingkindness.

For there is no mention of You in death;

In Sheol who will give You thanks?

I am weary with my sighing;

Every night I make my bed swim,

I dissolve my couch with my tears.

My eye has wasted away with grief;

It has become old because of all my adversaries.

Depart from me, all you who do iniquity,

For the LORD has heard the voice of my weeping.

The LORD has heard my supplication,

The LORD receives my prayer.

All my enemies will be ashamed and greatly dismayed;

They shall turn back, they will suddenly be ashamed” (Psalm 6:1-10).

Me. My favorite topic. That’s how I consistently want to read the Scripture – through the interpretive framework of the most important person in the universe. Me, me, me. Then I get to verse 8a, where the Psalmist says, “depart from me, all you who do iniquity.” My first instinct is to think of all those workers of iniquity I’d like to banish from my presence. Nasty sinners. Mean people. Insensitive grumps. Ignorant Philistines. That’s the instinct. My self-centered, self-righteous, foolish, and sinful instinct. Because even as I try to pray this phrase as my own, I hear a much more authoritative Voice speaking these words...

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; [as it says in Psalm 6:8a] depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:15-23).

Oh. This isn’t my Psalm. It’s my Lord’s song and prayer. A Psalm of David, the prophet of the risen Lord Jesus (Acts 2:30,31). Now I have to go back and re-read the Psalm, hearing my Master and Savior pray it in the long dark nights between dealing patiently with the needy and slow-to-believe. I have to hear His voice as He is hounded by the religious proud in their schemes. As He is rejected. Condemned. Scorned. Shamed. As He receives the cup – my cup (the one place I can say “me” is in the deserved wrathful dregs) – from His Father. As the Father rejects Him because of my iniquity, my lawlessness.

It’s not my song. It’s His.

“Return, O LORD, rescue my soul;

Save me because of Your lovingkindness.

For there is no mention of You in death;

In Sheol who will give You thanks?” (6:4,5).

And because it’s the song of His perfect, sinless, beloved Son, the Father hears the prayer and there is a third day, a resurrection day, the Lord’s Day.

“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety” (Hebrews 5:7).

He sang the song, and He was heard. Hallelujah, He was heard!

“For the LORD has heard the voice of My weeping.

The LORD has heard My supplication,

The LORD receives My prayer” (Psalm 6:8b,9).

In the midst of this is the command to “depart from Me, all you who do iniquity.” When the Lord quotes it to His disciples, He says, “you who practice lawlessness” (those whose religion is the twisting, perverting, ignoring, and breaking of God’s Law).

The Psalm teaches us that the resurrection is an announcement of judgment against the enemies of the risen Christ. He will give command that His angels remove the lawless from His Kingdom (Matthew 13:41), for He hates lawlessness (Hebrews 1:9, quoting Psalm 45:7).

Lest this “Lord’s Prayer” become a cause of deep grief, beloved...

...remember the blessing: “But to the one who does not work [for his salvation], but believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David [in Psalm 32:1,2] also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those who lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.’ Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say [with Genesis 15:6], ‘faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.’ How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised...now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him Who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He Who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:5-12,23-25).

...remember the great purchase: “...our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus...gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:13,14).

...remember the covenant with every lifting of the cup (for the cup points to the blood of the covenant, Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25): “And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us; for after saying [in Jeremiah 31:33,34], ‘“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,” says the Lord: “I will put My laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them,” He then says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He Who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:15-25).

Ah, the daily reading of the Psalms for this sinner: taking a big, deep breath to sing it out loudly from a self-centered heart, only to have the words get caught in my throat, choking on the Psalm, as I realize the Lord prayed them concerning me, the sinner, and then to realize that in the Father answering this petition from the Son through resurrection, I have life, too. It is beautiful beyond art and infinitely wiser than merely human words. It is gracious beyond what even the most perfect me I can imagine could ever deserve. It is the barest of tastes of how the days of eternity will be spent, for “in the ages to come He [will] show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).

He is good, and His merciful covenant-love endures forever and ever and ever...

Two Testimonies You Need to Hear Today, Church

“To our dear brothers in the church of Geneva: Grace and peace from our good God and Father through Jesus Christ our Savior be multiplied to you Amen!

Very dear brothers in our Lord Jesus Christ, since you have been informed of our captivity and of the fury which drives our enemies to persecute and afflict us, we felt it would be good to let you know of the liberty of our spirit and of the wonderful assistance and consolation which our good Father and Savior gives us in these dark prison cells, so that you may participate not only in our affliction of which you have heard but also in our consolation, as members of the same body who all participate in common both in the good and in the evil which comes to pass. For this reason we want you to know that although our body is confined here between four walls, yet our spirit has never been so free and so comforted, and has never previously contemplated so fully and so vividly as now the great heavenly riches and treasures and the truth of the promises which God has made to His children; so much so that we seem not only to believe and hope in them but even to see them with our eyes and touch them with our hands, so great and remarkable is the assistance from God in our bonds and imprisonment. So far, indeed, are we from wishing to regard our affliction as a curse from God, as the world and the flesh wish to regard it, that we regard it rather as the greatest blessing that has ever come upon us, for in it we are made true children of God, brothers and companions of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and are conformed to His image; and by it the possession of our eternal inheritance is confirmed to us. Further, we are bold to say and affirm that we shall derive more profit in this school for our salvation than has ever been the case in any place where we have studied, and we testify that this is the true school of the children of God...we therefore praise God with all our heart and give Him undying thanks that He has been pleased to give us by His grace not only the theory of His Word but also the practice of it, and that He has granted us this honor – which is no small thing for vessels so poor and fragile and mere worms creeping on the earth – by bringing us out before men to be His witnesses and giving us constancy to confess His name and maintain the truth of His holy Word before those who are unwilling to hear it, indeed, who persecute it with all their force...we pray you most affectionately to thank our good God with us for granting to us so great a blessing, so that we may return thanks to Him, beseeching Him that, as He has commenced this work in us, so He will complete it, to the end that all glory may be given to Him, and that, whether we live or die, all may be to His honor and glory, to the edification of His poor Church, and to the advancement of our salvation. Amen.”

Sent by five young men imprisoned in Lyon (July 1552), from Philip E. Hughes’ The Register of the Company of Pastors of Geneva in the Time of Calvin (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1966), pgs. 191-192.

They would be burned at the stake.

“Having made profession of the glorious gospel of Christ a long time, and preached the same about five years, I was apprehended at a meeting of good people in the country...at the sessions after I was indicted for an upholder and maintainer of unlawful assemblies and conventicles, and for not conforming to the national worship of the church of England; and after some conference there with the justices, they taking my plain dealing with them for a confession, as they termed it, of the indictment, did sentence me to a perpetual banishment, because I refused to conform. So being again delivered up to the jailer’s hands, I was had home to prison, and there have lain now complete twelve years, waiting to see what God would suffer these men to do with me. In which condition I have continued with much content, through grace, but have met with many turnings and goings upon my heart, both from the Lord, Satan, and my own corruptions; by all which (glory be to Jesus Christ) I have also received among many things, much conviction, instruction, and understanding, of which at large I shall not here discourse; only give you a hint or two, a word that may stir up the godly to bless God, and to pray for me; and also to take encouragement, should the case be their own – not to fear what man can do to them. I never had in all my life so great an inlet into the word of God as now...”

Written by John Bunyan, in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666).

The Sole Avenue of Grace

Every single day, repeatedly remind yourself and meditate on the fact that God’s infinitely saving grace comes to you solely through the Person and work of Jesus Christ:

·         “And from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:16,17).

·         “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (Romans 16:20).

·         “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you” (1 Corinthians 16:23).

·         “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

·         “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen” (Galatians 6:18).

·         “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Philippians 4:23).

·         “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (1 Thessalonians 5:28).

·         “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (2 Thessalonians 3:18).

·         “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Philemon 25).

Don’t ever let yourself believe that grace comes to you through anything naturally in you or as a result of your actions, intentions, morality, ethics, politics, ANYTHING. The second we think we deserve God's forgiveness, blessing, adoption, etc., more than someone, anyone else, we are denying the very nature of grace as it comes through the eternal Son of God! The moment we entertain the idea that we receive anything from God through any other source than Christ, we are lapsing into Pharisaism, are denying the Gospel that saved us, and straying from true, biblical Christianity! You cannot add to the grace that comes from Christ. You cannot earn it. You cannot repay it. This requires a daily consideration of the truth of the Gospel and its claim that saving grace comes through Christ, and Christ alone. We need the daily Gospel!

Rest in that, beloved. Rest in that!