The Gospel in 60 seconds ... again

Erik Raymond:

God made everything out of nothing, including you and me. His main purpose in creation was to bring him pleasure.

The chief way in which we as humanity do this is through loving, obeying, and enjoying him perfectly.

Instead of this, we have sinned against our loving Creator and acted in high-handed rebellion.

God has vowed that he will righteously and lovingly judge sinners with eternal death.

But God, being merciful, loving, gracious, and just, sent his own son, Jesus Christ, in the likeness of man to live as a man; fulfilling his perfect requirements in the place of sinners; loving, obeying, and enjoying him perfectly.

And further, his son bore the eternal judgment of God upon the cross of Calvary, as he satisfied the eternal anger of God, standing in the place of sinners. God treated Jesus as a sinner, though he was perfectly sinless, that he might declare sinners as perfect.

This glorious transaction occurs as the sinner puts their faith (dependence, trust) in the Lord Jesus Christ as their substitute. God then charges Christ’s perfection to the sinner, and no longer views him as an enemy but instead an adopted son covered in the perfect righteousness of his son.

God furnished proof that this sacrifice was accepted by raising Jesus from the dead.

God will judge the world in righteousness and all of those who are not covered in the righteousness of Christ, depending on him for forgiveness, will be forced to stand on their own to bear the eternal anger of God.

Therefore, all must turn from sin and receive Christ Jesus as Lord.

The Gospel in 60 Seconds and "What is the Gospel?" video

Mark Dever:

There is one God,
He made us,
He made us in His image,
He made us good,
we've sinned against Him and we've fallen.

God would be just and good to judge us eternally,
but in His amazing love, the eternal Son of God has taken on flesh, been incarnate.
Jesus Christ, fully man, fully God, lived the life we should've lived,
lived perfectly,
died on the cross,
in the place of our sins,
in the place of everyone who will repent of their sins and trust in Him.

God raised Him from the dead,
He ascended into heaven,
He will return in the same manner
and He calls us to repent of our sins and trust on Him.

He will give us new life,
fill us with the Holy Spirit,
give us the new birth,
and adopt us as His reconciled children forever.

(Mark Dever, Commending Christ, Q & A, Desiring God 2009 Conference for Pastors)

Reliable friends are rare treasures

Ray Ortlund:

"Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is truly reliable?" Proverbs 20:6, NLT

A spirit of self-assurance is a gospel-denying, self-deceiving, friendship-destroying mentality. It is natural to say to ourselves, "I'm doing my part. They should be grateful." It is supernatural to say to ourselves, "I place myself under the judgment of the Word of God. I humble myself. Even if the other person is wrong, that gives me no right to assert myself. No matter what the other person does, no matter how much I am misunderstood and misjudged, I will remain in the fear of the Lord, I will entrust myself to God." True friendship thrives when, before God, each one is more aware of his debts than his rights.

If God has given you reliable friends, and surely he has, hold them close to your heart. Each one is a rare treasure.

Falling in love with the Church -- again

Derek Thomas:

Something is terribly wrong when professing Christians do not identify with the church and love being a part of her. Something is wrong when professing Christians fail to be passionate about every aspect of the church and long to invest themselves in her, taking all that the church represents and does to heart. Listen, for example, to the way Paul instructs the Ephesians: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).

Read his entire post.

My church or the Kingdom?

Ray Ortlund:

"My passion isn't to build up my church. My passion is for God's Kingdom."

Ever heard someone say that? I have. It sounds large-hearted, but it's wrong. It can even be destructive.

Suppose I said, "My passion isn't to build up my marriage. My passion is for Marriage. I want the institution of Marriage to be revered again. I'll work for that. I'll pray for that. I'll sacrifice for that. But don't expect me to hunker down in the humble daily realities of building a great marriage with my wife Jani. I'm aiming at something grander."

If I said that, would you think, "Wow, Ray is so committed"? Or would you wonder if I had lost my mind?

If you care about the Kingdom, be the kind of person who can be counted on in your own church. Join your church, pray for your church, tithe to your church, participate in your church every Sunday with wholehearted passion.

We build great churches the same way we build great marriages -- real commitment that makes a positive difference every day.

When relationships are built around the tuths of the Gospel

Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson, in Counsel from the Cross: Connecting Broken People to the Love of Christ (pp. 86-87):

When relationships are built around the truths of the gospel—the truth that we are walking in light even though we are still sinners in need of cleansing by his blood—we can be free from feelings of inferiority and the demanding spirit that is born of pride. We can pursue relationships without fear of being discovered as the sinners we are. This kind of open relationship rests solely on the realities of the gospel. We are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, and so is everyone we know. Because of this, we won’t be surprised by other’s sins. They won’t expect us to be sinless either, so we don’t have to give in to self-condemnation and fear when they see us as we really are. We don’t have to hide or pretend anymore.

The gospel also tells us that we are loved and welcomed without any merit on our part, so we can love and welcome others whose merits we can’t see. We can remember the circumstances under which we have been forgiven, and we can forgive in the same way. We don’t deserve relationship with the Trinity, but it has been given to us. We can seek our relationships with others because we know that we have been sought out by him and that he is carrying us all on his shoulders. (Yes, he is that strong!)

HT: Between Two Worlds

Rethinking sanctification

From Michael Patton's post "Rethinking sanctification because I have to" at Parchment and Pen:

Sanctification n. The process of Christian development that has more to do with how dependent you have become on the Lord, not necessarily about being “good.” Sanctification has more to do with how often you are broken before him, not your stoic ability to deal with pain. Sanctification has more to do with a recognition of your weaknesses than of your strengths. Sanctification has more to do with repentance than with the things that don’t require repentance. In the end, sanctification amounts to the progressive movements you make toward the side of God because you have no where else to go.

Two questions for sanctification

From Leadership 's interview with Matt Chandler:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They're not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn't take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It's not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that's a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what's right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they're not immoral.

HT: Between Two Worlds

You have no right to go to hell

"The gospel does not say, 'There is a Savior, if you wish to be saved'; but, 'Sir, you have no right to go to hell -- you cannot go there without trampling on the Son of God.'" - John Duncan, quoted in Iain H. Murray, Spurgeon v. Hyper-Calvinism, page 97.

Ray Ortlund: Hell was made not for people but for the devil and his angels (Matt 25:41).Jesus died with such all-sufficiency that heaven is open to all who repent and believe.To end up in hell, that foreign land, one must disregard the cross of Jesus, which no one has the right to do.

HT: Christ is deeper still

The purpose of creation, redemption & consummation

“The purpose of creation, redemption, and consummation are seen holistically as God’s purpose to glorify Christ by fulfilling the Adamic creation mandate, the universal Noahic promise, the patriarchal covenants, and the Israelite monarchy in Him, thus exalting Jesus as preeminent over the entire cosmos as the agent of creation, the true imago Dei, the Davidic subjugator of all rival powers, the firstborn of the eschatological resurrection from the dead, and the atonement through whom final cosmic peace is found at last (Col. 1:15-23).” - Russell D. Moore, The Kingdom of Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2004), 108.

HT: Of First Importance

The Gospel in Romans: God-Man-Christ-Response

Greg Gilbert shares at Church Matters the God-Man-Christ-Response summary of the Gospel found in Paul's epistle to the Romans:

Have you ever wondered where from the Bible we get the little God-Man-Christ-Response summary of the Gospel? Sometimes that summary gets poo-pooed a bit as a simplistic, manufactured reduction of the Gospel that really doesn't do justice to what the Bible actually says. (Yes, I said "poo-pooed.")
But have you ever noticed that Paul, when he wants to give a simple, straightforward, step-by-step presentation of his Gospel, goes exactly through those four points, one after the other? He does it in the first four chapters of Romans. That's where we get it.

GOD

First, Paul tells his readers that it is God to whom they are accountable. He begins his presentation of the gospel by declaring that “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven” (Rom. 1:18). So with his very first words, Paul insists that humanity is not autonomous. We did not create ourselves, and we are neither self-reliant nor self-accountable. No, it is God who created the world and everything in it, including us. Because he created us, God has the right to demand that we worship him. Look what Paul says in verses 20-21:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Humanity's sin was failing to honor and thank God. It is our obligation, as people created and owned by God, to give him the honor and glory that is due to him, to live and speak and act and think in a way that recognizes and acknowledges his authority over us. We are made by him, owned by him, dependent on him, and therefore accountable to him. That’s the first point Paul labors to make as he explains the gospel.

MAN

Second, Paul tells his readers that their problem is that they rebelled against God. They—along with everyone else—did not honor God and give thanks to him as they should have. Their foolish hearts were darkened and they “exchanged God’s glory for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.”

For most of the next three chapters Paul presses this point, indicting all humanity as sinners against God. First he focuses on the Gentiles in chapter 1, and then he turns just as strongly toward the Jews in chapter 2. It’s as if Paul knows that the most self-righteous of the Jews would have been applauding his lashing of the Gentiles, so he pivots on a dime in 2:1 and points his accusing finger at them: “You, therefore, have no excuse!” Just like Gentiles, he says, Jews have broken God’s law and are under his judgment.

By the middle of chapter three, Paul has indicted every single person in the world with rebellion against God. “We have made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin” (3:9). And his conclusion is that when we stand before God the Judge, every mouth will be silenced. No one will mount a defense. Not one excuse will be offered. The whole world—Jew, Gentile, every last one of us—will be held fully accountable to God (3:19).

CHRIST

Third, Paul says that God’s solution to humanity’s sin is the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “But now,” he writes, in spite of our sin, “now a righteousness from God, apart from Law, has been made known” (3:21). In other words, there is a way for human beings to be counted righteous before God instead of unrighteous, to be declared innocent instead of guilty, to be justified instead of condemned. And it has nothing do with acting better, or living a more righteous life. It comes “apart from the law.”

And how does it happen? Paul puts it plainly in Romans 3:24. Despite our rebellion against God, we can be “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Through Christ’s sacrificial death (“propitiation,” Paul says) and resurrection, sinners may be saved from the condemnation our sins deserve.

RESPONSE

Finally, Paul tells his readers how they themselves can be included in this salvation. That’s what he writes about through the end of chapter three and on through chapter four. The salvation God has provided “comes through faith in Jesus Christ.” It comes “to all who believe” (3:22). So how does this salvation become good news for me and not just for someone else? How do I come to be included in it? By believing in Jesus Christ. By trusting him and no other to save me. “To the man who does not work but trusts God to save the wicked,” Paul explains, “his faith is credited as righteousness,” (4:5).

____________

So there you go. God-Man-Christ-Response, as plain as day, right there in the first four chapters of Romans. Of course Paul goes on to talk about other things: the Christ-Adam parallel in 5, the grace-leads-to-sin/no-it-doesn’t-it-leads-to-freedom-and-holiness exchange in 6, the reason salvation cannot be by law in 7, the great explosion of gospel promise in 8, the excruciating question of Israel’s non-belief in 9-11, and the application of all this in 12-16. But it all starts with the Gospel in 1-4 -- God-Man-Christ-Response.

My Song is Love Unknown

Choosing Thomas

A family chooses life.

Gospel humility

“Humility agrees and is glad that everything we have is a free gift of God, and that this severs the root of boasting in our distinctives. Whatever talents, whatever intelligence, what ever skills, whatever gifts, whatever looks, whatever pedigree, whatever possessions, whatever wit, whatever influence you have, put away all pride because it is a gift, and put away all despair because it is a gift from God.” - John Piper, Greatness, Humility, Servanthood

HT: Of First Importance

Lloyd-Jones: focusing on what really matters

Justin Taylor shares a an MLJ quote he learned about from David Sunday:

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, commenting on Phil 1:10 ("that you may approve what is excellent," or "that you may have a sense of what is vital"):

The difficulty in life is to know on what we ought to concentrate. The whole art of life, I sometimes think, is the art of knowing what to leave out, what to ignore, what to put on one side. How prone we are to dissipate our energies and to waste our time by forgetting what is vital and giving ourselves to second and third rate issues. Now, says Paul, here you are in the Christian life, you are concerned about difficulties, about oppositions and about the contradictions of life. What you need is just this: the power to concentrate on that which is vital, to leave out everything else, and to keep steadily to the one thing that matters.

The Life of Joy: Philippians, vol. 1, pp. 54-55.

HT: Between Two Worlds