"The Gospel-Driven Life"

WTS Books is offering Michael Horton's new book, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World (Baker), for 45% off. The offer is good for the next week and a half.

This book is a sequel to Christless Christianity, moving from "the crisis to solutions, in the hope that we will see a new reformation in the faith, practice, and witness of contemporary Christianity."

Here are some excerpts:

"Unique among all religious claims, the gospel is an announcement about certain historical events. At its heart, then, Christianity is not a resource for spirituality, religion, and morality, but a dramatic story at the heart of which is the claim that during the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Jesus was crucified for our sins and, after three days, was raised bodily from the dead. As we will see, the arguments for his resurrection are eminently reasonable—more reasonable, in fact, than alternative explanations. The apostle Paul told the Corinthians that if Christ was not raised, then we are not saved. No other religion makes its validity wholly dependent on a historical fact….

"It is interesting that the biblical writers chose the word “gospel.” The heart of most religions is good advice, good techniques, good programs, good ideas, and good support systems. These drive us deeper into ourselves, to find our inner light, inner goodness, inner voice, or inner resources. Nothing new can be found inside of us. There is no inner rescuer deep down in my soul; I just hear echoes of my own voice telling me all sorts of crazy things to numb my sense of fear, anxiety, and boredom, the origins of which I cannot truly identify.

"But the heart of Christianity is Good News. It comes not as a task for us to fulfill, a mission for us to accomplish, a game plan for us to follow with the help of life coaches, but as a report that someone else has already fulfilled, accomplished, followed, and achieved everything for us. Good advice may help us in daily direction; the Good News concerning Jesus Christ saves us from sin’s guilt and tyranny over our lives and the fear of death. It’s Good News because it does not depend on us. It is about God and his faithfulness to his own purposes and promises."


--Michael Horton, "The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World," Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group, © 2009.

HT: Justin Taylor

"What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory?"

“The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies’ strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours.

"Let us therefore be `strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might’ (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory?”

—Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1998), 122
posted at "Of First Importance"

"Take Heed What You Read" (and Watch)

“Do not let newspapers, novels, and romances be read, while the prophets and Apostles be despised. Do not let the exciting and sensual swallow up your attention, while the edifying and the sanctifying can find no place in your mind.”

“Young men, give the Bible the honor due to it every day you live. Whatever you read, read that first. And beware of bad books: there are plenty in this day. Take heed what you read.”

~ J.C. Ryle


Thoughts For Young Men, 42.

Judge Yourself By What Christ Is

“Ah! believer, it is safer always for you to be led of the Spirit into gospel liberty than to wear legal fetters. Judge yourself at what Christ is rather than what you are. Satan will try to mar your peace by reminding you of your sinfulness and imperfections: you can only meet his accusations by faithfully adhering to the Gospel and refusing to wear the yoke of bondage.”

- Charles Spurgeon, Morning & Evening, September 6

Living in Light of the Kingdom/Reign of God

The Reign/Kingdom of God
Lesson summary: (from the New Horizons class on Sunday 9/13/09)

Essentially, the "gospel" in the NT is the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand (very near) in Jesus (Matt. 4:23, 9:35, Mark 1:14, Luke 4:43, Acts 20:24-25).

"God’s kingdom/reign" is his powerful activity coming into history to defeat Satan and bring about salvation with all its blessings. God’s kingdom authority is the reiteration/re-assertion of his commandments. (cp. Matt.28:18-20). So when the kingdom/reign of God is ‘at hand,’ it is time for people to repent. (Matt.4:17)

Even the demand for repentance is good news, because in context it implies that God, though coming in power to claim his rights, is willing to forgive for Christ's sake. (John Frame)

When God comes into history, he brings his power and authority to bear on his creatures and the creation. In kingdom power, he establishes peace/shalom. (Isa. 35; Rev.21:1-5)

Consider Isa. 52:7, one of the most important background passages for the New Testament concept of gospel:

MAIN IDEA: The coming of the kingdom of God means God’s re-assertion of his rightful reign/rule (the way He wants things to be/shalom) through His activities of saving and judging. God saves those who repent and believe, and finally judges those who persist in rebellion and unbelief. (Rom.2:7-11)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION/APPLICATION:
1. Do you habitually respond to the message/reality of the reign/kingdom of God with a deepening, widening response of repentance and faith (trust and allegiance/obedience)?
Matt.13:18-23 [Parable of the Sower].

2. Read Luke 8:14 (another version of the parable of the sower):

a.. What are some of the worries of life that choke out the working of God’s Word in people’s lives today?
b. What are some of the riches….?
c. What are some of the pleasures…?

3. Do you think most professing Christians today view their Christian lives in terms of the reign of God, or do we tend to view ourselves as central and ‘sovereign’? And do we encourage that self-focused attitude in non-Christians as we seek to ‘reach’ them?

4. How should the central reality of the reign of God shape and influence our view of…
…Conversion?
…Discipleship?
…Worship?
…Service?
…Mission?

Cross-centered Worship Singing

In an interview, C.J. Mahaney and Bob Kauflin affirm the importance of cross-centered songs in worship. Here's an excerpt...

"...we must never leave the impression during corporate worship that we do not need a mediator. There isn’t a moment where I don’t need a mediator. In light of the Father’s holiness and my sinfulness, I cannot approach him directly apart from Christ. It is quite possible for us to sing songs that are accurately extolling the attributes of God. But if the cross is absent, we leave the unintended impression that somehow I can approach the Father apart from a mediator—that I can experience intimacy with God apart from the One who died for my many sins. "

Remembering 9/11

A very moving collection of videos, remembering September 11, at Kevin DeYoung's blog.

The Authentic Experience of Christianity

"Men ...have no real acquaintance with Christianity, who imagine that the placing of the most intense affections of our souls on the person of Christ, the loving him with all our hearts because of his love, our being overcome thereby, until we are sick of love [i.e., 'love-sick'], the constant motions of our souls towards him with delight and adherence, are but fancies and imaginations."

-- John Owen Works I:166f.

Who Can Live With This Worldview?

"It was true, I had always realized it -- I hadn't any 'right' to exist at all. I had appeared by chance, I existed like a stone, a plant, a microbe. I could feel nothing to myself but an inconsequential buzzing. I was thinking...that here we are eating and drinking, to preserve our precious existence, and there's nothing, nothing, absolutely no reason for existing."

-- Jean-Paul Sartre, "Nausea"

"If one puts aside the existence of God and the survival after life as too doubtful...one has to make up one's mind as to the use of life. If death ends all, if I have neither to hope for good not to fear evil, I must ask myself what I am here for, and how in these circumstances I must conduct myself.

"Now the answer is plain, but so unpalatable that most will not face it. There is no meaning for life, and [thus] life has no meaning."

-- Somerset Maugham, "The Summing Up"

-- cited by Timothy Keller in "The Reason for God" (Dutton, 2008, p. 127)

Evangelical Disinterest in Communion with God

Justin Taylor highlights two crucial quotes from J.I. Packer...

". . . whereas to the Puritans communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing. The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not. The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it. When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology—but rarely of their daily experience of God.

"Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service—but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God. Our sermons contain much sound doctrine—but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour. We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters. Thus we make it plain that communion with God is a small thing to us. But how different were the Puritans! The whole aim of their ‘practical and experimental’ preaching and writing was to explore the reaches of the doctrine and practice of man’s communion with God."

-- J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, p. 215 (chapter 12).

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From the last page of J.I. Packer's 1973 classic, Knowing God:

"We have been brought to the point where we both can and must get our life’s priorities straight. From current Christian publications you might think that the most vital issue for any real or would-be Christian in the world today is church union, or social witness, or dialogue with other Christians and other faiths, or refuting this or that -ism, or developing a Christian philosophy and culture, or what have you.

"But our line of study makes the present day concentration on these things look like a gigantic conspiracy of misdirection. Of course, it is not that; the issues themselves are real and must be dealt with in their place. But it is tragic that, in paying attention to them, so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, and is, and always will be, the true priority for every human being. That is, learning to know God in Christ."

Communion and the Kingdom of God

Here's the link to my message Sunday, focusing on the connection between the Communion service and our hope for the coming kingdom of God.

Seeking God's Kingdom For Its Own Sake

"Christianity will indeed accomplish many useful things in this world, but if it is accepted in order to accomplish those useful things it is not Christianity. Christianity will combat Bolshevism; but if it is accepted in order to combat Bolshevism, it is not Christianity: Christianity will produce a unified nation, in a slow but satisfactory way; but if it is accepted in order to produce a unified nation, it is not Christianity: Christianity will produce a healthy community; but if it is accepted in order to produce a healthy community, it is not Christianity: Christianity will promote international peace; but if it is accepted in order to promote international peace, it is not Christianity.

"Our Lord said: 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' But if you seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness in order that all those other things may be added unto you, you will miss both those other things and the Kingdom of God as well."

-- J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism p. 152
HT: Russ Reeves

More from Martin Luther regarding faith...

A friend sent me this quote from Martin Luther, as a follow-up to the quote from faith I posted yesterday:

"Faith is a work of God in us, which changes us and brings us to birth anew from God (cf. John 1). It kills the old Adam, makes us completely different people in heart, mind, senses, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. What a living, creative, active, powerful thing is faith! It is impossible that faith ever stop doing good. Faith doesn't ask whether good works are to be done, but, before it is asked, it has done them. It is always active. . .

"Faith is a living, unshakeable confidence in God's grace; it is so certain, that someone would die a thousand times for it. This kind of trust in and knowledge of God's grace makes a person joyful, confident, and happy with regard to God and all creatures. This is what the Holy Spirit does by faith. Through faith, a person will do good to everyone without coercion, willingly and happily; he will serve everyone, suffer everything for the love and praise of God, who has shown him such grace. It is as impossible to separate works from faith as burning and shining from fire."

-- from 'An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans.'

Faith in Christ Alone

“Faith, if it is to be sure and steadfast, must lay hold upon nothing else but Christ alone, and in the conflict and terrors of conscience it has nothing else to lean on but this precious pearl Christ Jesus. So, he who apprehends Christ by faith, although he be terrified with the law and oppressed with the weight of his sins, yet he may be bold to glory that he is righteous. How? Even by that precious jewel Christ Jesus, whom he possesses by faith.”


—Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians, 99

(HT: Ray Ortlund; "Of First Importance")

A Reminder

The kingdom of God is not a democracy.