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A Question Every Person Needs to Ask

February 29, 2012 By Leave a Comment

From Ray Ortlund, quoting J. Gresham Machen:

“Justification by faith is an answer to the greatest personal question ever asked by a human soul: ‘How shall I be right with God?  How do I stand in God’s sight?  With what favor does he look upon me?’  There are those, I admit, who never raise that question.  There are those who are concerned with the question of their standing before men but never with the question of their standing before God.  There are those who are interested in what ‘people say’ but not in the question of what God says.  Such men, however, are not those who move the world.  They are apt to go with the current.  They are apt to do as others do.  They are not the heroes who change the destinies of the race.  The beginning of true nobility comes when a man ceases to be interested in the judgment of men and becomes interested in the judgment of God.”

J. Gresham Machen, in God Transcendent (Edinburgh, 1982), pages 89-90.

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The Joyful Finality of “It is Finished”

August 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

Ray Ortlund, quoting C.H. Spurgeon:

“If today you feel that sin is hateful to you, believe in Him who has said, ‘It is finished.’  Let me link your hand in mine.  Let us come together, both of us, and say, ‘Here are two poor naked souls, good Lord; we cannot clothe ourselves,’ and He will give us a robe, for ‘it is finished.’ . . . ‘But must we not add tears to it?’  ‘No,’ says He, ‘no, it is finished, there is enough.’

Child of God, will you have Christ’s finished righteousness this morning, and will you rejoice in it more than you ever have before?”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Treasury of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, 1950), II:675.  Style updated.

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There Is Now No Condemnation…

July 14, 2010 By 2 Comments

From Ray Ortlund:

Freed

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 8:1

Now.  Not five years from now when you are a better Christian.  Right now.  At this instant.

No.  None at all.  Not even a little.  Zero.  Gone.  Poof.

For those in Christ Jesus.  And only because we are in him.  We provide everything that deserves condemnation.  He provides everything that deserves acceptance.

This is the plain message of the Bible, because God not only does not condemn us, he also doesn’t want us feeling condemned.  He wants us feeling freed.  Nothing like no-condemnation to get us riled up for his glory!

James Montgomery Boice, Romans (Grand Rapids, 1992), page 789: “Verse 1 is not only the theme of Romans 8.  It is the theme of the entire Word of God, which is only another way of saying that it is the gospel.  Indeed, it is the gospel’s very heart.”

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The Accuser

March 10, 2010 By 1 Comment

The highest aim of the Enemy is to take our focus off of Christ (Hebrews 12:2).  He works in cunning fashion to make us slip, even for a moment.  Thank God for Jesus, the power of the cross, and promises like 2 Corinthians 2:11 (“…for we are not ignorant of his designs”).

From Ray Ortlund:

“When the Law shows us our sin, our past life immediately comes to our mind.  Then the sinner, in his great anguish of mind, groans and says to himself, ‘Oh, how damnably I have lived!  If only I could live longer!  Then I would amend my life.’ . . . Taking advantage of the weakness of our nature, Satan increases and aggravates these thoughts in us.  Then it is impossible for the conscience to avoid being more seriously troubled, confounded and frightened. . . . Therefore the afflicted conscience has no remedy against despair and eternal death except to take hold of the promise of grace offered in Christ.”

Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians (St. Louis, 1963), page 5.

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