PRESERVATION (Romans 8:31-39)
"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)
Joseph A. Fitzmeyer writes:
“The love of God poured out in the Christ-event is the basis of Christian life and hope. No created being or force can unsettle that foundation. In all of the uncertainty of human, earthly life there is something fixed and certain, Christ’s love and God’s election. These are unshakable; and Christians must learn to trust in them and take them for granted.” (The Anchor Bible Commentary: Romans, 536)
The doctrine of salvation, and particularly God’s preservation of his people, is at the heart of the Reformation, brothers and sisters. Must we make atonement for our own sins…must we satisfy the justice of God ourselves…or has Christ done that for us already? Can we have peace, confidence, and assurance or our eternal salvation or must we live always in anxious uncertainty? Are we saved by works of righteousness…by being good or moral person…or are we saved by grace? These are the questions upon which the Reformation was built, brothers and sisters, as Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and other reformers came to truly believe what Paul writes in Ephesians, chapter two:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
The reformers also understood the truth that if our eternal salvation were, in fact, in our hands, we would have good reason to be anxious because we would most certainly lose it. We can never be good enough…never do enough to earn our eternal salvation or to keep it. We would mess it up somehow. We would always find a way to screw it up, because that’s what we do, isn’t it? We screw up. Pretty frequently, too, I’d say. We are sinful creatures, brothers and sisters, bent on satisfying selfish desires, and I guarantee you, if my eternal salvation was left in my hands, I would lose it…every time in a million tries.
But as the apostle Paul assures me, as Calvin comments, and as Luther came to believe through his study of Paul’s letter, perhaps ironically, to the church in Rome, my eternal salvation is not in my hands. There is no one in earth or heaven who can bring any accusation against me except Jesus Christ, and he’s the one who saves me. There is no thing in earth or heaven that can stand between me and Jesus Christ. There is no length of time or unforeseen event in earth or heaven that can separate me from God’s love for me in Jesus Christ.
I am saved because God has chosen to save me. My eternal salvation is in his hands, not mine. It’s his choice, not mine. It’s his job to keep my salvation, not mine. There is nothing I can do to earn my salvation because I can’t do anything good enough to earn that. There is nothing I can do to lose my salvation because I can’t do anything bad enough to separate me from Jesus Christ. If rulers, angels, life or death can’t do it…if things present or things to come can’t do it…if distress, persecution, famine, peril, or the sword can’t separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, how arrogant…how prideful…how sinful is it to assume that I can?
Nothing will be able to separate us…nothing has the power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord…not rulers, not persecution, not angels, not an unknown future, not height, not depth, not anything else in all creation…not you…not me…nothing and no one has the power to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the assurance of the gospel, brothers and sisters…that those who God has chosen to save, he will keep until the last day. The eternal salvation of the elect is secure because it is God who holds…God who keeps us…God who preserves us...God who saves us.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
CONVERSION (Titus 2:11-15)
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, 12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly..." (Titus 2:11-12)
John MacArthur says:
“conversion…means to turn back. And it's used in the new testament of…a sinner who turns back to God. Now let me give you a definition of repentance and in relation to conversion. Repentance is—let's put conversion as a total circle and split the circle in half. Half of it is repentance and half of it is faith, the whole circle is conversion. Repentance is the negative, turning toward God. Faith is receiving Christ. That makes conversion.” (http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1712)
Conversion, in the basic sense, means turning around in light of some knowledge that you didn’t have before, and going another way. Conversion, in the theological sense, means, as Paul writes in Titus, chapter two, to “renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly” (Titus 2:12)…to turn from our sinful ways, and live godly lives…to turn around and go God’s way instead of our own.
There are two parts to conversion. There is turning around, and there is going God’s way. In theological language the two parts of conversion are called repentance and faith. Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). Be converted. Repent and believe.
Repentance is the first part of conversion. Faith is the second part, and by faith I don’t just mean an intellectual assent. I don’t mean just saying on Sunday morning, “I believe in God the Father almighty,” after the offering. I mean living according to the values and mores of the Kingdom of God Sunday morning, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday evening, Thursday afternoon, and Friday and Saturday night, too. Faith is more than acknowledging that something is true, it is conforming my life in accordance with what I know to be true.
If repentance is renouncing impiety and the ways of the world, faith is living a self-controlled, upright, and godly life.
If repentance is saying, “I’m sorry,” faith is not doing it again.
If repentance is turning your back on the things that led you in the wrong direction, faith is walking away.
When we are converted to Christ, we begin a life of Christian discipline…of repentance and belief. To be converted means to be changed, brothers and sisters, to go a different way than the world around us…to trust in God’s Word, God’s will, and God’s way, and follow Jesus. We must be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. We must turn around and start walking. We must repent and believe. This is conversion.
"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, 12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly..." (Titus 2:11-12)
John MacArthur says:
“conversion…means to turn back. And it's used in the new testament of…a sinner who turns back to God. Now let me give you a definition of repentance and in relation to conversion. Repentance is—let's put conversion as a total circle and split the circle in half. Half of it is repentance and half of it is faith, the whole circle is conversion. Repentance is the negative, turning toward God. Faith is receiving Christ. That makes conversion.” (http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/1712)
Conversion, in the basic sense, means turning around in light of some knowledge that you didn’t have before, and going another way. Conversion, in the theological sense, means, as Paul writes in Titus, chapter two, to “renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly” (Titus 2:12)…to turn from our sinful ways, and live godly lives…to turn around and go God’s way instead of our own.
There are two parts to conversion. There is turning around, and there is going God’s way. In theological language the two parts of conversion are called repentance and faith. Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). Be converted. Repent and believe.
Repentance is the first part of conversion. Faith is the second part, and by faith I don’t just mean an intellectual assent. I don’t mean just saying on Sunday morning, “I believe in God the Father almighty,” after the offering. I mean living according to the values and mores of the Kingdom of God Sunday morning, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday evening, Thursday afternoon, and Friday and Saturday night, too. Faith is more than acknowledging that something is true, it is conforming my life in accordance with what I know to be true.
If repentance is renouncing impiety and the ways of the world, faith is living a self-controlled, upright, and godly life.
If repentance is saying, “I’m sorry,” faith is not doing it again.
If repentance is turning your back on the things that led you in the wrong direction, faith is walking away.
When we are converted to Christ, we begin a life of Christian discipline…of repentance and belief. To be converted means to be changed, brothers and sisters, to go a different way than the world around us…to trust in God’s Word, God’s will, and God’s way, and follow Jesus. We must be doers of the Word, and not hearers only. We must turn around and start walking. We must repent and believe. This is conversion.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
REGENERATION (Titus 3:3-7)
"he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5)
Anne Graham Lotz writes:
“My mother led me in prayer as I confessed my sin to God and told Him I was sorry. I thanked Jesus for dying for my sin and asked God to forgive me. I told Him I believed Jesus had risen from the dead, and I invited Him to come live in my heart. I don’t remember any dramatic sensation afterward, but I knew my sin had been forgiven and I had been born again.” (“Be Sure of Heaven”, http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/about-us/be-sure-heaven/)
In John, chapter five, Jesus tells the people: “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)
The Old Testament scriptures, from beginning to end, speak about Jesus the Christ, and point to his coming, yet the people of his day, especially the scholars…those who were well versed in the scriptures…did not accept him as the Messiah. Why? Even when the Messiah stood right in front of them speaking directly to them, doing all kinds of miraculous things, displaying great power and wisdom…why did they not acknowledge him as the Messiah of God?
Because they had no eyes with which to see the truth that was right in front of them.
Because they had no ears to hear the gospel that had been proclaimed to Abraham and all their ancestors in the scriptures and proclaimed also to them.
Because the Holy Spirit had not regenerated their hearts and minds and spirits.
The proclamation of the gospel is not enough, brothers and sisters. Hearing the gospel story proclaimed is not enough to bring someone to faith in Christ. We all know people who know about Jesus…who have heard the gospel story…and reject it…who do not believe and turn and follow Christ. If the Holy Spirit regenerates people through the proclamation of the gospel, why doesn’t everyone who hears the gospel come to faith in Christ?
This is where knowing the rest of the order of salvation comes in handy.
Why do some come to believe and others not? The short answer is election.
God chooses…God elects…to regenerate some, and not others, therefore some come to believe in Jesus and others don’t. The unregenerate cannot come to faith because they do not hear the gospel when it is proclaimed. They do not see the truth that is set before them. Those who are dead in sin cannot respond to the gospel message because they’re dead.
What’s the difference between an atheist who knows the gospel story, who has studied the Bible closely, and has rejected it as false, and the one who believes the truth of the gospel, turns to follow Jesus Christ, and offers her life as a living sacrifice to the glory of God?
What is the difference between a blind man and a man who once was blind?
What is the difference between a deaf woman and a woman who once was deaf?
The difference, brothers and sisters, is regeneration.
The difference is that those for whom the Holy Sprit regenerates blind eyes and missing ears can see and hear the truth about Jesus. Those who are left blind and deaf, though they memorize the whole Bible, will never be able to see and hear its truth…will never come to faith in Christ…because they are still dead in their sins. They have not been given new life by the Holy Spirit. They have not been born again.
God chooses us. We hear the gospel. The Spirit gives new life.
"he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5)
Anne Graham Lotz writes:
“My mother led me in prayer as I confessed my sin to God and told Him I was sorry. I thanked Jesus for dying for my sin and asked God to forgive me. I told Him I believed Jesus had risen from the dead, and I invited Him to come live in my heart. I don’t remember any dramatic sensation afterward, but I knew my sin had been forgiven and I had been born again.” (“Be Sure of Heaven”, http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/about-us/be-sure-heaven/)
In John, chapter five, Jesus tells the people: “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40)
The Old Testament scriptures, from beginning to end, speak about Jesus the Christ, and point to his coming, yet the people of his day, especially the scholars…those who were well versed in the scriptures…did not accept him as the Messiah. Why? Even when the Messiah stood right in front of them speaking directly to them, doing all kinds of miraculous things, displaying great power and wisdom…why did they not acknowledge him as the Messiah of God?
Because they had no eyes with which to see the truth that was right in front of them.
Because they had no ears to hear the gospel that had been proclaimed to Abraham and all their ancestors in the scriptures and proclaimed also to them.
Because the Holy Spirit had not regenerated their hearts and minds and spirits.
The proclamation of the gospel is not enough, brothers and sisters. Hearing the gospel story proclaimed is not enough to bring someone to faith in Christ. We all know people who know about Jesus…who have heard the gospel story…and reject it…who do not believe and turn and follow Christ. If the Holy Spirit regenerates people through the proclamation of the gospel, why doesn’t everyone who hears the gospel come to faith in Christ?
This is where knowing the rest of the order of salvation comes in handy.
Why do some come to believe and others not? The short answer is election.
God chooses…God elects…to regenerate some, and not others, therefore some come to believe in Jesus and others don’t. The unregenerate cannot come to faith because they do not hear the gospel when it is proclaimed. They do not see the truth that is set before them. Those who are dead in sin cannot respond to the gospel message because they’re dead.
What’s the difference between an atheist who knows the gospel story, who has studied the Bible closely, and has rejected it as false, and the one who believes the truth of the gospel, turns to follow Jesus Christ, and offers her life as a living sacrifice to the glory of God?
What is the difference between a blind man and a man who once was blind?
What is the difference between a deaf woman and a woman who once was deaf?
The difference, brothers and sisters, is regeneration.
The difference is that those for whom the Holy Sprit regenerates blind eyes and missing ears can see and hear the truth about Jesus. Those who are left blind and deaf, though they memorize the whole Bible, will never be able to see and hear its truth…will never come to faith in Christ…because they are still dead in their sins. They have not been given new life by the Holy Spirit. They have not been born again.
God chooses us. We hear the gospel. The Spirit gives new life.
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