What is grace?

“Grace is not a ‘thing’. It is not a substance that can be measured or a commodity to be distributed. It is the ‘grace of the Lord Jesus Christ’ (2 Cor. 13:14). In essence, it is Jesus Himself.”

- Sinclair Ferguson, By Grace Alone (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2010), xv.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Be watchful

Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 1

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. 2

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 3

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children-- 4

but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. 5

And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake." 6

fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you." 7
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1. Rev 3:2; 2. 1Pe 4:7; 3. 1Pe 5:8; 4. Deu 4:9; 5. Heb 10:38,39; 6. Mar 13:37; 7. Isa 41:10,13

Check out more of "Samuel Bagster's 'Daily Light' Devotions," which "consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes - two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. Daily Light appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself."

The Story of God

“If you read the Bible from cover to cover you realize that it narrates (proclaims!) a true and cohesive story: the good news that through Jesus Christ God has entered history to liberate and renew the world from its bondage to sin and suffering. This is the story of God, who pursues the restoration of his creation at the cost of his own life. He is making all things new (Rev 21:5)! That’s the simple and yet profound, life- and world-altering plotline of the Bible.”

- Michael R. Emlet, CrossTalk (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2009), 41.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Forgiveness gives away the right to get even

John Piper: Forgiveness assumes grace. If I am injured by you, grace lets
it go. I don’t sue you. I forgive you. Grace gives what someone
doesn’t deserve. That’s why forgiveness has the word give in it.
Forgiveness is not “getting” even. It is giving away the right to
get even. (The Passion of Jesus Christ: Fifty Reasons Why He Came to Die, page 36)

Henry Scougal on humility

"Humility" imports a deep sense of our own weakness, with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the divine bounty. This is always accompanied with a profound submission to the will of God, and great deadness towards the glory of the world and applause of men. (The Works of Henry Scougal (1650-1678), page13)

(HT: Joshua Harris)

The Gift of Gifts

Here's a prayer titled "The Gift of Gifts" from "Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions" edited by Arthur Bennett (pages 27-28):

O SOURCE OF ALL GOOD,

What shall I render to thee for the gift of gifts,
thin own dear Son, begotten, not created,
my Redeemer, proxy, surety, substitute,
his self-emptying incomprehensible,
his infinity of love beyond the heart's grasp.

Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like him.

Herein is love;
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on
wings of grace,
to raise me to himself.

Herein is power;
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
he united them in indissoluble unity,
the uncreated and the created.

Herein is wisdom;
when I was undone, with no will to return to him,
and no intellect to devise recovery
he came, God-incarnate, to save me
to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
and enlarge my mind;
let me hear good tidings of great joy,
and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father;
place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,
to look with them upon my Redeemer's face,
and in him account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child
to my heart,
embrace him with undying faith,
exulting that he is mine and I am his.

In him thou hast given me so much
that heaven can give no more.

Truthless love, loveless truth

Tim Chester:

Love without truth is like doing heart surgery with a wet fish.

But truth without love is like doing heart surgery with a hammer.

—You Can Change: God’s Transforming Power for Our Sinful Behavior and Negative Emotions, p. 158.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

You can't get to know God on the fly

Paul Miller (A Praying Life, page 47):

Jesus' example teaches us that prayer is about relationship. When he prays, he is not performing a duty; he is getting close to his Father.

Any relationship, if it is going to grow, needs private space, time together without an agenda, where you can get to know each other. This creates an environment where closeness happen, where we can begin to understand each other's hearts.

You don't create intimacy; you make room for it. This is true whether you are talking about your spouse, your friend, or God. You need space to be together. Efficiency, multitasking, and busyness all kill intimacy. In short, you can't get to know God on the fly.

If Jesus has to pull away from people and noise in order to pray, then it makes sense that we need to as well.

(HT: Joshua Harris)

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The Difference between the converted and the unconverted

William Arnot:

The difference between an unconverted and a converted man is not that one has sins and the other has none; but that the one takes part with his cherished sins against a dreaded God, and the other takes part with a reconciled God against his hated sins.

—Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth: Illustrations of the Book of Proverbs (orig., London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1884), p. 311.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Warfield on the joyfully exultant tone of miserable sinner Christianity

B.B. Warfield (1851–1921), from his essay, “’Miserable-Sinner Christianity’ in the Hands of the Rationalists,” in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, vol. 7, pp. 113-114:

We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all.

This is not true of us only “when we believe.”

It is just as true after we have believed.

It will continue to be true as long as we live.

Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in Christian behavior may be.

It is always on His “blood and righteousness” alone that we can rest.

There is never anything that we are or have or do that can take His place, or that can take a place along with Him.

We are always unworthy, and all that we have or do of good is always of pure grace.

Though blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, we are still in ourselves just “miserable sinners”: “miserable sinners” saved by grace to be sure, but “miserable sinners” still, deserving in ourselves nothing but everlasting wrath. That is the attitude which the Reformers took, and that is the attitude which the Protestant world has learned from the Reformers to take, toward the relation of believers to Christ.

There is emphasized in this attitude the believer’s continued sinfulness in fact and in act; and his continued sense of his sinfulness. And this carries with it recognition of the necessity of unbroken penitence throughout life. The Christian is conceived fundamentally in other words as a penitent sinner.

But that is not all that is to be said: it is not even the main thing that must be said.

It is therefore gravely inadequate to describe the spirit of “miserable sinner Christianity” as “the spirit of continuous but not unhopeful penitence.” It is not merely that it is too negative a description, and that we must at least say, “the spirit of continuous though hopeful penitence.” It is wholly uncomprehending description, and misplaces the emphasis altogether.

The spirit of this Christianity is a spirit of penitent indeed, but overmastering exultation.

The attitude of the “miserable sinner” is not only not one of despair; it is not even one of depression; and not even one of hesitation or doubt; hope is too weak a word to apply to it.

It is an attitude of exultant joy.

Only this joy has its ground not in ourselves but in our Savior.

We are sinners and we know ourselves to be sinners, lost and helpless in ourselves.

But we are saved sinners; and it is our salvation which gives the tone to our life, a tone of joy which swells in exact proportion to the sense we have of our ill-desert; for it is he to whom much is forgiven who loves much, and who, loving, rejoices much.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

What you can do with the gospel

Justin Taylor provides a sample list from two verses of what we can do with the gospel.

You can (and should):

• preach it
• hear it preached
• deliver it
• receive it
• believe it
• be saved by it
• remember it
• remind others of it
• stand in it
• hold fast to it

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”—1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Whatever is not from faith is sin

"The most penetrating and devastating definition of sin that I am aware of in Scripture is the last part of Romans 14:23: "Whatever is not from faith is sin." The reason it is penetrating is that it goes to the root of all sinful actions and attitudes, namely, the failure to trust God. And the reason it is devastating is that it sweeps away all our lists of dos and don'ts and makes anything, from preaching to house-painting, a candidate for sin. In the original language, this is stressed even more than in our versions: it says, "Everything which is not from faith is sin." Anything, absolutely any act or attitude which is owing to a lack of trust in God is sin, no matter how moral it may appear to men. God looks on the heart." (John Piper)

Faith is being satisfied in all the God promises to be for us in Jesus Christ. (John Piper)

Every time you sin, you are diminishing your ability to find your joy and satisfaction in God.