How did this happen?
How we ever got from the presentation of the Good News in, say, the Gospel of Matthew to our current ‘my-predicament-centered, give-mental-assent-to-the-atonement-plan’ way of thinking about what it means to become a Christian is a long, sad story, but it’s a serious and crucially significant difference.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is presented as the messianic King, the Lord who saves, and it is obvious that the right and required response to Him and His message is one of repentance/faith -- unconditional though imperfect confidence/trust/allegiance – consider the case of the rich young ruler (Matt. 19:16ff). In this scenario, a right response to the Message of Jesus means a person begins to be a believing follower of Jesus as Teacher/Master/Savior, recognizing and rightly responding to his authority in every area of life, and seeing all of life, from now on, in terms of serving him and his purposes.
What a contrast to so much ‘evangelism’ today which is almost entirely focused on taking care of my problem of being headed to Hell, so as to get me the assurance that I’ll go to Heaven instead, by ‘praying a prayer.’ No wonder so many professing Christians, populating evangelical churches today, are stalled out and stagnant, constantly wanting their ‘christianity’ on their own terms in every sphere, manifested in carelessness in regard to a grace-based pursuit of holiness (Titus 2:11-15), cluelessness when it comes to contemporary forms of worldliness, self-centeredness that is uninterested in deferring to others in matters like music preferences, indifference to baptism and membership, volatility when it comes to serving (“volunteering”), vulnerability to every kind of mis-belief and faddish trend, disinterest in authentic evangelism and mission, etc.
At the same time, individual ‘believers’ continue to live profoundly self-centered (in-the-‘flesh’) lives and wonder why their ‘christianity’ is powerless, life-less, joy-less and uninteresting. All this leave us discontent, bitter and feeling perpetually entitled to better from God, the church, family, friends, etc. Such is life in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-20).
Jesus’ actual message was, and is, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven [the return of the reign of God] is near.” (Matt. 4:17) May God have mercy on us and bring us back to the Biblical Good News, and to an authentic understanding of what a genuinely saving response to that Good News really means – a faith that works, and a repentance that actually turns from idols and self-centered sinning to the glad and willing service of the living and true God (1 Thess. 1:3, 9-10), obeying everything that Jesus, our new Master, commands (Matt. 28:18-20).
This is not some extreme or exotic form of Christianity. This IS (authentic, Biblical, Spirit-empowered) Christianity.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
"The eminency of the Father's love"
"So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more.
"Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him. This, if anything, will work upon us to make our abode with him. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?
"Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. I dare boldly say: believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a further discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from him, will not be able, after a while, to keep at a distance for a moment."
--John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (ed. K. Kapic and J. Taylor; Crossway, 2007), 128
"Every other discovery of God, without this, will but make the soul fly from him; but if the heart be once much taken up with this the eminency of the Father’s love, it cannot choose but be overpowered, conquered, and endeared unto him. This, if anything, will work upon us to make our abode with him. If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will?
"Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruitful love of the Father, and see if your hearts be not wrought upon to delight in him. I dare boldly say: believers will find it as thriving a course as ever they pitched on in their lives. Sit down a little at the fountain, and you will quickly have a further discovery of the sweetness of the streams. You who have run from him, will not be able, after a while, to keep at a distance for a moment."
--John Owen, Communion with the Triune God (ed. K. Kapic and J. Taylor; Crossway, 2007), 128
Friday, June 14, 2013
"Jesus shall reign...."
"No matter how many strong enemies plot to overthrow the church, they do not have sufficient strength to prevail over God’s immutable decree by which he appointed his Son eternal King."
— John Calvin, quoted by Eric J. Alexander in
"The Supremacy of Jesus Christ in John Calvin A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology," ed. Burk Parsons (Orlando, Fl.: Reformation Trust, 2008), 109
— John Calvin, quoted by Eric J. Alexander in
"The Supremacy of Jesus Christ in John Calvin A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine & Doxology," ed. Burk Parsons (Orlando, Fl.: Reformation Trust, 2008), 109
Thursday, June 13, 2013
"I give good gifts..."
I stood, a mendicant of [i.e., beggar before] God, before His royal throne
and begged Him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart I cried,
'But Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange and hurtful gift which Thou hast given me.'
He said, 'My child, I give good gifts. I gave My best to thee.'
I took it home. And though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
as long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace:
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.
-- Anonymous
and begged Him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart I cried,
'But Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange and hurtful gift which Thou hast given me.'
He said, 'My child, I give good gifts. I gave My best to thee.'
I took it home. And though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
as long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace:
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.
-- Anonymous
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Doing us good in spite of our evil
November 6, 1777
My dear Sir,
You say you are more disposed to cry miserere than hallelujah. Why not both together? When the treble is praise, and heart humiliation for the bass, the melody is pleasant, and the harmony good. However, if not both together, we must have them alternately: not all singing, not all sighing, but an interchange and balance, that we may be neither lifted up too high nor cast down too low, which would be the case if we were very comfortable or very sorrowful for a long continuance. But though we change, the Savior changes not.
All our concerns are in his hands, and therefore safe. His path is in the deep waters; his thoughts and methods of conduct are as high above ours as the heavens are high above the earth; and he often takes a course for accomplishing his purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He wounds, in order to heal; kills, that he may make alive; casts down, when he designs to raise; brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects, when he is about to give us the desire of our hearts. These things he does to prove us; but he himself knows, and has determined beforehand, what he will do.
The proof indeed usually turns out to our shame. Impatience and unbelief show their heads, and prompt us to suppose this and the other thing, yes, perhaps all things, are against us; to question whether he be with us and for us, or not. But it issues likewise in the praise of his goodness, when we find that, in spite of all our unkind complaints and suspicions, he is still working wonderfully for us, causing light to shine out of darkness and doing us good in defiance of ourselves.
I am, etc.
John Newton
HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.
My dear Sir,
You say you are more disposed to cry miserere than hallelujah. Why not both together? When the treble is praise, and heart humiliation for the bass, the melody is pleasant, and the harmony good. However, if not both together, we must have them alternately: not all singing, not all sighing, but an interchange and balance, that we may be neither lifted up too high nor cast down too low, which would be the case if we were very comfortable or very sorrowful for a long continuance. But though we change, the Savior changes not.
All our concerns are in his hands, and therefore safe. His path is in the deep waters; his thoughts and methods of conduct are as high above ours as the heavens are high above the earth; and he often takes a course for accomplishing his purposes directly contrary to what our narrow views would prescribe. He wounds, in order to heal; kills, that he may make alive; casts down, when he designs to raise; brings a death upon our feelings, wishes and prospects, when he is about to give us the desire of our hearts. These things he does to prove us; but he himself knows, and has determined beforehand, what he will do.
The proof indeed usually turns out to our shame. Impatience and unbelief show their heads, and prompt us to suppose this and the other thing, yes, perhaps all things, are against us; to question whether he be with us and for us, or not. But it issues likewise in the praise of his goodness, when we find that, in spite of all our unkind complaints and suspicions, he is still working wonderfully for us, causing light to shine out of darkness and doing us good in defiance of ourselves.
I am, etc.
John Newton
HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Discernment
"Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong. It's knowing the difference between right and almost right." -- Charles Spurgeon
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Christ Is Our Hope
"When Christ died on the cross our hopes began, when he rose they were confirmed, when he went up on high they began to be fulfilled, when he comes a second time they will be realized." -- Charles Spurgeon
Saturday, June 8, 2013
When God Comes Down
“A revival . . . is a special and manifest outpouring of the Spirit of God, when the work no longer labors in the hands of man but seems to be taken up by God himself, and God comes down in a manner and with an influence before which the wicked stand in awe, and all the people feel his special presence. . . . Everybody hears, because they come [to church] to hear; everybody feels, because they cannot help it. Every day sinners are awakened, and every day sinners are converted. While one is weeping for his sins, another is rejoicing in hope. And ministers and experienced Christians give themselves up entirely to the work which God has thrown upon their hands, to warn those who are yet careless, to guide the inquiring, and to nourish those who are born again. Conscience is almost universally tender. Turn where you will to speak of the things of eternity, and you may find a willing ear; address whom you will on the concerns of his soul, and not unlikely the first word will open a fountain of tears. And what is all this? And whence comes it? It is the Spirit of God, it is the power of the Highest, and all feel that it is so.”
Calvin Colton, The History and Character of American Revivals of Religion (London, 1832), pages 80-82.
HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.
Calvin Colton, The History and Character of American Revivals of Religion (London, 1832), pages 80-82.
HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.
Friday, June 7, 2013
Thursday, June 6, 2013
"The Primacy of the Word in Worship"
-- Ron Man (orginally posted at The Gospel Coalition website_:
The Word of God is of supreme importance in the life of the Christian, containing as it does God’s revelation of his Person, his will and his ways. The Word needs to be pored over, ingested into one’s mind and heart, meditated on, and acted upon. It is a unique and precious repository of spiritual truth and guidance and encouragement. There is no aspect of the life of the church or of the individual believer that should not be tied to a scriptural mooring and infused with biblical substance (2 Tim 3:16-17). The Bible is indeed ”a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps 119:105).
When Christians gather for corporate worship, it is logical that the Word of God should play a central and dominant role. For since worship involves focusing our thoughts and hearts and voices on the praise of God, in response to his self-revelation and his gracious saving initiative, we of course need that view of God which the Word gives us if our worship is to be “in truth” (John 4:23-24). Our worship can only duly honor God if it accurately reflects what he reveals about himself in his Word.
The Word Neglected
That said, the astounding observation has been made as to how little use is made of Scripture in the worship services of most evangelical churches. The irony of course is that those who claim most strongly to stand on the Bible have so little of it in their worship. While the sermon of course takes a prominent role in our services, even preaching consists mostly of talking about the Scriptures (often after reading just a very few verses). It must be said that liturgical groups (whether on the more liberal or the more conservative end of the spectrum theologically) have probably ten times as much actual Scripture in their services (because it is built into their liturgies) as most evangelical free churches!
In too many of our churches the entire first part of the service consists just of music, and no Scripture is read at all. This author has experienced this often in both traditional and contemporary services: the problem is pervasive. It would seem crucially important for people in a service, believers and unbelievers, to hear (and/or see printed in a bulletin or flashed on a screen) verses of Scripture chosen to give a clear signal that: “We have come to worship God. The Word is how we know about God, and therefore it is the foundation for all that we do here and for our understanding of why we have come together.” Without hearing such a declaration, worshipers make the faulty assumption (consciously or unconsciously) that we invite ourselves into God’s presence, when in actuality it is only by virtue of his invitation (and his opening the way through the work of Christ) that we may come before him at all.
As James White puts it, “the first step toward making our worship more biblical is in giving the reading of God’s Word a central role in Christian worship on any occasion” (“Making Our Worship More Biblical,” Perkins Journal 34:38). We simply cannot overstate the importance of Scripture for our worship. By all means, let us be as creative as possible in building in Scripture (verses on banners or projected onto a screen as people enter, verses on the bulletin cover, readers’ theater, children reciting verses, original Scripture songs, etc), but let us make sure that the primacy of the Word in worship is obvious throughout the entire service—not just during the sermon. As White adds: Scripture is read, not just for a sermon text, but to hear what word God addresses to the gathered congregation. Preaching usually builds on that but Scripture is read for its own sake as God’s Word . . . . It needs to be communicated to all that the centrality of Scripture stems from its functions as proclamation of God’s Word to the gathered people (38).
In Scripture we find the prerequisites for worship, the invitation to worship, the authority for worship, the material for worship, the regulation of our worship, the message of worship, and the end to which worship should lead.
The Word and the Prerequisites for Worship.
The Word of God helps to bring us to the point where our approach to God in worship is possible: it teaches us that we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1); it reveals that God has provided for redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life through the work of Jesus Christ; and it presents the opportunity to come by faith into a right relationship with the Father. “The washing of water with the Word” (Ephesians 5:26) provides the spiritual cleanliness which God requires for us to be able to enter confidently into his presence (Ps 15:1-2; Heb 10:19-22; 12:18-24).
The Word as the Inviter to Worship.
God has done everything to make our approach in worship possible, and in his Word he extends the invitation (yea, command) to draw near. The Old Testament book of worship, the Psalter, is replete with calls to “praise the Lord!” (Hebrew: hallelujah). As the Danish hymn (text by Thomas Kingo, 1634-1703), puts it: We come, invited by your Word, To kneel before your altar, Lord.
The Word as the Authority for Worship.
The fact of the matter is that every aspect of the service should serve to reflect and honor the Word of God. The sermon (and the preacher) must be subservient to the Word: the Word must guide and control the preacher’s thoughts and words if the sermon is to communicate God’s message and not just the ideas of man. But also the music must be subservient to the Word: the texts must reflect and express biblical truth, and the music itself must be a suitable medium to carry the text; the musician(s) must also be subservient to the Word in terms of motivation and execution of the music. In addition, prayers and readings must be consistent with biblical teaching, if not actually taken from Scripture. As John MacArthur has put it, “If we are to worship in truth and the Word of God is truth, we must worship out of our understanding of the Word of God” (The Ultimate Priority, 122-23).
The Word as the Material for Worship.
Gary Furr and Milburn Price have suggested a number of ways in which the revelation of the Word can be communicated in the service, besides the ser- mon: Scripture readings of all sorts, music (setting Scripture texts, and also faithfully presenting scrip- tural truth in paraphrased or freely composed form), symbols (fish, cross, stained glass, etc.), carefully used drama (The Dialogue of Worship, 8- 15). When Scripture and scriptural truth are perva- sive in the service, then the acts of response will properly be understood as response to God’s self- revelation through His Word.
The Word as the Regulator of Worship.
Worship must be guided and channeled by truth, i.e. be in accordance with what God has revealed about Himself and His ways (and, as John 4:25-26 shows, must be through the Son, the Messiah, who is the truth [John 15:6]). As Furr and Price state: “This is the perfect blend: emotion regulated by understanding, enthusiasm directed by the Word of God” (125).
The Word and the Message of Worship.
Preaching is part of worship, and leads to worship. Indeed, John Piper calls preaching “expository exultation” and adds: “The all-pervasive, all- important, all-surpassing reality in every text is God. Whether he is commanding or warning or promising or teaching he is there. And where he is, he is always supreme. And where he is supreme he will be worshiped” (“Preaching as Worship”).
The Word and the End of Worship.
The Word should rightly be exalted in our worship (because it is the Word of God), but not as an end in itself. For the ultimate goal of worship (as of the church and of our lives as believers) is to display and pro- claim and magnify the glory of God. The glory of God will be well served in our worship as the Word speaks of the wonders of his person and his ways through reading, preaching, praying, singing, meditating, and practicing ordinances which are infused with and reflective of scriptural truth. The Word will enable us to obey its own command to “praise him according to his excellent greatness” (Ps 150:2).
Ron Man is the director of Worship Resources International, author of Proclamation and Praise: Hebrews 2:12 and the Christology of Worship (Wipf & Stock, 2006), and produces Worship Notes, a free monthly online newsletter. Follow Ron on Twitter @ronmanwri.
HT: The Gospel Coalition
The Word of God is of supreme importance in the life of the Christian, containing as it does God’s revelation of his Person, his will and his ways. The Word needs to be pored over, ingested into one’s mind and heart, meditated on, and acted upon. It is a unique and precious repository of spiritual truth and guidance and encouragement. There is no aspect of the life of the church or of the individual believer that should not be tied to a scriptural mooring and infused with biblical substance (2 Tim 3:16-17). The Bible is indeed ”a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Ps 119:105).
When Christians gather for corporate worship, it is logical that the Word of God should play a central and dominant role. For since worship involves focusing our thoughts and hearts and voices on the praise of God, in response to his self-revelation and his gracious saving initiative, we of course need that view of God which the Word gives us if our worship is to be “in truth” (John 4:23-24). Our worship can only duly honor God if it accurately reflects what he reveals about himself in his Word.
The Word Neglected
That said, the astounding observation has been made as to how little use is made of Scripture in the worship services of most evangelical churches. The irony of course is that those who claim most strongly to stand on the Bible have so little of it in their worship. While the sermon of course takes a prominent role in our services, even preaching consists mostly of talking about the Scriptures (often after reading just a very few verses). It must be said that liturgical groups (whether on the more liberal or the more conservative end of the spectrum theologically) have probably ten times as much actual Scripture in their services (because it is built into their liturgies) as most evangelical free churches!
In too many of our churches the entire first part of the service consists just of music, and no Scripture is read at all. This author has experienced this often in both traditional and contemporary services: the problem is pervasive. It would seem crucially important for people in a service, believers and unbelievers, to hear (and/or see printed in a bulletin or flashed on a screen) verses of Scripture chosen to give a clear signal that: “We have come to worship God. The Word is how we know about God, and therefore it is the foundation for all that we do here and for our understanding of why we have come together.” Without hearing such a declaration, worshipers make the faulty assumption (consciously or unconsciously) that we invite ourselves into God’s presence, when in actuality it is only by virtue of his invitation (and his opening the way through the work of Christ) that we may come before him at all.
As James White puts it, “the first step toward making our worship more biblical is in giving the reading of God’s Word a central role in Christian worship on any occasion” (“Making Our Worship More Biblical,” Perkins Journal 34:38). We simply cannot overstate the importance of Scripture for our worship. By all means, let us be as creative as possible in building in Scripture (verses on banners or projected onto a screen as people enter, verses on the bulletin cover, readers’ theater, children reciting verses, original Scripture songs, etc), but let us make sure that the primacy of the Word in worship is obvious throughout the entire service—not just during the sermon. As White adds: Scripture is read, not just for a sermon text, but to hear what word God addresses to the gathered congregation. Preaching usually builds on that but Scripture is read for its own sake as God’s Word . . . . It needs to be communicated to all that the centrality of Scripture stems from its functions as proclamation of God’s Word to the gathered people (38).
In Scripture we find the prerequisites for worship, the invitation to worship, the authority for worship, the material for worship, the regulation of our worship, the message of worship, and the end to which worship should lead.
The Word and the Prerequisites for Worship.
The Word of God helps to bring us to the point where our approach to God in worship is possible: it teaches us that we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1); it reveals that God has provided for redemption, forgiveness, and eternal life through the work of Jesus Christ; and it presents the opportunity to come by faith into a right relationship with the Father. “The washing of water with the Word” (Ephesians 5:26) provides the spiritual cleanliness which God requires for us to be able to enter confidently into his presence (Ps 15:1-2; Heb 10:19-22; 12:18-24).
The Word as the Inviter to Worship.
God has done everything to make our approach in worship possible, and in his Word he extends the invitation (yea, command) to draw near. The Old Testament book of worship, the Psalter, is replete with calls to “praise the Lord!” (Hebrew: hallelujah). As the Danish hymn (text by Thomas Kingo, 1634-1703), puts it: We come, invited by your Word, To kneel before your altar, Lord.
The Word as the Authority for Worship.
The fact of the matter is that every aspect of the service should serve to reflect and honor the Word of God. The sermon (and the preacher) must be subservient to the Word: the Word must guide and control the preacher’s thoughts and words if the sermon is to communicate God’s message and not just the ideas of man. But also the music must be subservient to the Word: the texts must reflect and express biblical truth, and the music itself must be a suitable medium to carry the text; the musician(s) must also be subservient to the Word in terms of motivation and execution of the music. In addition, prayers and readings must be consistent with biblical teaching, if not actually taken from Scripture. As John MacArthur has put it, “If we are to worship in truth and the Word of God is truth, we must worship out of our understanding of the Word of God” (The Ultimate Priority, 122-23).
The Word as the Material for Worship.
Gary Furr and Milburn Price have suggested a number of ways in which the revelation of the Word can be communicated in the service, besides the ser- mon: Scripture readings of all sorts, music (setting Scripture texts, and also faithfully presenting scrip- tural truth in paraphrased or freely composed form), symbols (fish, cross, stained glass, etc.), carefully used drama (The Dialogue of Worship, 8- 15). When Scripture and scriptural truth are perva- sive in the service, then the acts of response will properly be understood as response to God’s self- revelation through His Word.
The Word as the Regulator of Worship.
Worship must be guided and channeled by truth, i.e. be in accordance with what God has revealed about Himself and His ways (and, as John 4:25-26 shows, must be through the Son, the Messiah, who is the truth [John 15:6]). As Furr and Price state: “This is the perfect blend: emotion regulated by understanding, enthusiasm directed by the Word of God” (125).
The Word and the Message of Worship.
Preaching is part of worship, and leads to worship. Indeed, John Piper calls preaching “expository exultation” and adds: “The all-pervasive, all- important, all-surpassing reality in every text is God. Whether he is commanding or warning or promising or teaching he is there. And where he is, he is always supreme. And where he is supreme he will be worshiped” (“Preaching as Worship”).
The Word and the End of Worship.
The Word should rightly be exalted in our worship (because it is the Word of God), but not as an end in itself. For the ultimate goal of worship (as of the church and of our lives as believers) is to display and pro- claim and magnify the glory of God. The glory of God will be well served in our worship as the Word speaks of the wonders of his person and his ways through reading, preaching, praying, singing, meditating, and practicing ordinances which are infused with and reflective of scriptural truth. The Word will enable us to obey its own command to “praise him according to his excellent greatness” (Ps 150:2).
Ron Man is the director of Worship Resources International, author of Proclamation and Praise: Hebrews 2:12 and the Christology of Worship (Wipf & Stock, 2006), and produces Worship Notes, a free monthly online newsletter. Follow Ron on Twitter @ronmanwri.
HT: The Gospel Coalition
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Theology 101
"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." -- A.W. Tozer
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Christians and Suffering
"If we are true Christians, we must not expect everything smooth in our journey to heaven. We must count it no strange thing, if we have to endure sicknesses, losses, bereavements, and disappointments, just like other people. Free pardon and full forgiveness, grace by the way and glory to the end – all this our Savior has promised to give. But He has never promised that we shall have no afflictions."
~ J.C. Ryle
~ J.C. Ryle
Monday, June 3, 2013
"Made Clean Forever"
“I do believe and confess that Christ’s condemnation is my absolution, that his crucifying is my deliverance, his descending into hell is my ascending into heaven, his death is my life, his blood is my cleansing and purging, by whom only I am washed, purified and cleansed from all my sins, so that I neither receive nor believe any other purgatory, either in this world or in the other, whereby I am purged, but only the blood of Jesus Christ, by which all are purged and made clean forever.”
-- Bishop John Hooper, quoted in Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, "Theology of the English Reformers"(London, 1965), page 65, style updated.
Self-invented punishment does not cleanse. Christ alone cleanses. Christ all by himself. Now and forever. And on terms of grace. -- Ray Ortlund, Jr.
-- Bishop John Hooper, quoted in Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, "Theology of the English Reformers"(London, 1965), page 65, style updated.
Self-invented punishment does not cleanse. Christ alone cleanses. Christ all by himself. Now and forever. And on terms of grace. -- Ray Ortlund, Jr.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
"Good Master" -- Matthew 19:16
'If the young man in the gospel used this title in speaking to our Lord, how much more fitly may I thus address Him! He is indeed my Master in both senses, a ruling Master and a teaching Master. I delight to run upon His errands, and to sit at His feet. I am both His servant and His disciple, and count it my highest honour to own the double character. If He should ask me why I call Him "good," I should have a ready answer. It is true that "there is none good but one, that is, God," but then He is God, and all the goodness of Deity shines forth in Him. In my experience, I have found Him good, so good, indeed, that all the good I have has come to me through Him. He was good to me when I was dead in sin, for He raised me by His Spirit's power; He has been good to me in all my needs, trials, struggles, and sorrows. Never could there be a better Master, for His service is freedom, His rule is love: I wish I were one thousandth part as good a servant. When He teaches me as my Rabbi, He is unspeakably good, His doctrine is divine, His manner is condescending, His spirit is gentleness itself. No error mingles with His instruction—pure is the golden truth which He brings forth, and all His teachings lead to goodness, sanctifying as well as edifying the disciple. Angels find Him a good Master and delight to pay their homage at His footstool. The ancient saints proved Him to be a good Master, and each of them rejoiced to sing, "I am Thy servant, O Lord!" My own humble testimony must certainly be to the same effect. I will bear this witness before my friends and neighbours, for possibly they may be led by my testimony to seek my Lord Jesus as their Master. O that they would do so! They would never repent so wise a deed. If they would but take His easy yoke, they would find themselves in so royal a service that they would enlist in it for ever.'
-- Charles Spurgeon
-- Charles Spurgeon
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