Transformed by the Gospel of Glory

The glory of God is the most powerful agent of transformation available to mankind.  It is so powerful that is transforms those who merely gaze upon it.  The Apostle Paul gives personal testimony concerning this stunning fact.  "But we all," he says, "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and being transformed into the same image from glory to glory." (2 Corinthians 3:18)  From Paul's testimony I learn that if I wish to become all that God wants me to be, I must behold His glory each day.

 But where do I find God's glory to behold?  Indeed, the glory of God is revealed throughout all of Creation, (Psalm 19:1, Isaiah 6:3) but the Bible indicates that, outside of heaven, the glory of God in its thickest density dwells inside the gospel.  It is for this reason that the gospel is described in Scripture as "the gospel of the glory of Christ" and "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God." (2 Corinthians 4:4, 1 Timothy 1:11)  Consequently, as I habitually gaze upon the glory of the Lord revealed in the gospel, I can know the actual deposits of God's very glory are attaching themselves to my person and transforming me from one level of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18) This transformation is deep and abiding, and unfadingly displays the glory of God to others. (2 Corinthians 3:13)

 ~Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer, pages 16-17 (emphasis added)

Embrace Trials as Friends

Here is one of those lessons, like iodine on a wound, that stings as it makes us better.

More than anything else I could ever do, the gospel enables me to embrace my tribulations and thereby position myself to gain full benefit from them. For the gospel is the one great permanent circumstance in which I live and move; and every hardship in my life is allowed by God only because it serves His gospel purposes in me. When I view my circumstances in this light, I realize that the gospel is not just one piece of good news that fits into my life somewhere among all the bad. I realize instead that the gospel makes genuinely good news out of ever other aspect of my life, including my severest trials. The good news about my trials is that God is forcing them to bow to His gospel purposes and do good unto me by improving my character and making me more conformed to the image of Christ.

Preaching the gospel to myself each day provides a lens through which I can view my trials in this way and see the true cause for rejoicing that exists in them. I can then embrace trials as friends and allow them to do God's good work in me.

 ~Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer (emphasis added)

Scripture References:

Romans 5:1-5; 8:28-29
James 1:2-4
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Genesis Three: The Seed-Plot of the Bible

There is a trend today - even among otherwise solid evangelicals - to deny the literal interpretation of the Genesis account of creation, even to deny a historical Adam and Eve. Kevin DeYoung has some good thoughts on this slippery slope here. If we begin to question (though we may not outright deny) the very first chapters of our Bible, we immediately have some very big problems on our hands. Pastor John MacArthur rightly warns us, "If Genesis 1-3 doesn't tell us the truth, why should we believe anything else in the Bible?.. how can we be certain about anything else the Bible says?" (The Battle for the Beginning, Page 29.)
So, are there any important theological truths in these first pages of Holy Scripture? I'd say so; particularly in Genesis chapter three.

The third chapter in Genesis is one of the most important in all the Word of God. What has often been said of Genesis as a whole is peculiarly true of this chapter: it is the "seed-plot of the Bible." Here are the foundations upon which rest many of the cardinal doctrines of our faith. Here we trace back to their source many of the rivers of divine truth. Here commences the great drama which is being enacted on the stage of human history, and which well-nigh six thousand years has not yet completed.

• Here we find the Divine explanation of the present fallen and ruined condition of our race. 
• Here we learn of the subtle devices of our enemy, the Devil. 
• Here we behold the utter powerlessness of man to walk in the path of righteousness when divine grace is withheld from him. 
• Here we discover the spiritual effects of sin- man seeking to flee from God. 
• Here we discern the attitude of God toward the guilty sinner. 
• Here we mark the universal tendency of human nature to cover its own moral shame by a device of man's own handiwork. 
• Here we are taught of the gracious provision which God has made to meet our great need. 
• Here begins that marvelous stream of prophecy which runs all through the Holy Scriptures. 
• Here we learn that man cannot approach God except through a mediator.

A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Emphasis added)
Purchase at Amazon here.

Has Your Bible Read You Today?

We're often asked - and rightly so - "Have you read your Bible today?" But an even better question is this, "Has your Bible read YOU today?" In his new book on the parables of Jesus, Gerald Bilkes turns our thinking (and our Bible reading) around with these challenges:

"...many today are content to read the Bible in a way in which the Word of God is subject to them, rather than reading so they are subject to the Word. They study the Bible--so they think--but the Bible does not study them. They may even 'search the Scriptures,' but the Scriptures fail to search them."

Gerald M. Bilkes, Glory Veiled and Unveiled, Reformation Heritage Books

I once heard Dr. Bruce Ware suggest a simple prayer to pray before we begin our Bible reading, Lord, open Your Word to me and open me to Your Word. I think this is an appropriate way to begin allowing our Bibles to read us.



Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
(Psalm 139:23-24 ESV)

Symptoms of a Backslidden Heart

Any of these describe you?

1. Coldness in prayer.
2. Indifference under the Word.
3. Growing inner corruptions.
4. The love of the world.
5. Declining love for believers.
6. Man-centered hopes.

If so, you might be a backslider. 

In his convicting little book, Getting Back in the Race, The Cure for Backsliding, author and pastor Joel Beeke helps identify and cure the dangerous disease that many Christians know as backsliding.  Beeke elaborates on each of the symptoms listed above, but the third symptom, "growing inner corruptions," is what has particularly been weighing on my own heart.  Consider the following descriptions - make your own check-list if you must - and ask the Lord to reveal any sin and return your heart to Himself.

The Complaint Department

You've seen enough courtroom dramas to be familiar with the scene.  The defendant is called to the stand and the famous swearing of the oath begins.  Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Now, imagine hearing this as the defendant is seated and accusations are read:

The accused is charged with the following crimes: dangerous neglect of family, failure to give child support, and family abandonment. This person is a deadbeat and a menace to society. He needs to be taken off the streets and locked up until he can get his act together. The name of the accused: God.

Can you imagine?
The nerve!
The gall!
Accusing God?!

Yet, according to Stephen Altrogge, this is exactly what we all do when we complain.  In his great little book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding Contentment on Your Side of the Fence, Altrogge teaches us from Scripture (particularly, Paul's words in Philippians 4:10-19) about the missing virtue of contentment.  What I found most helpful, though, was his thorough look at the sinful result of being DIScontent.

The sin:  complaining.

Are You Astonished at the Difference?

I'm half-way through Stephen Altrogge's book, The Greener Grass Conspiracy: Finding contentment on Your Side of the Fence.  All's I can say is... My.  Oh.  My.  It's inwardly revealing, personally convicting, and so Gospel exalting.

At the end of a chapter that discussed contentment within the context of the sin of complaining, Altrogge walks the reader through the glorious Gospel truths to remind of all we have been given in Christ.  He begins concluding the chapter with these words about contentment:

The gospel of Christ is the fountainhead of contentment. In the gospel we have access to infinite blessings.  But if we don't drink often we will always be thirsty.  The moment I feel the saltwater-like thirst of discontentment, I need to plunge again in the gospel.

 He continues with a summary of complaining:

Complaining is almost always rooted in a faulty sense of rights and privileges.  Each of us has a lengthy list of things that we think we deserve....But the gospel makes it very clear that the only thing we truly deserve is  hell.... God owes us nothing except justice.  The fires of hell would be the right destination for ungrateful, arrogant rebels like us....On our worst days we're always doing infinitely better than we deserve.

Finally, he ends with this jaw dropping quote from The Valley of Vision (a book of Puritan prayers):

O Lord, I am astonished at the difference
between my receivings and my deservings,
between the state I am now in and my past gracelessness,
between the heaven I am bound for and the hell I merit.

O that such a crown should fit the head of such a sinner!
such high advancement be for an unfruitful person!
such joys for so vile a rebel!

Taken from The Valley of Vision, "The Mover"

Finding it difficult to be content?  Finding it easy to complain about such petty things?  Even significant things?  Christian, remember what we deserve.   And consider what we've received.

Rage Against the Icon of the Crucified

I've been looking forward to reading this book, and though I've not even finished the first chapter, I know I won't be disappointed.  There's already so much valuable insight from Russel Moore in his latest book, Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ.

Temptation is so strong in our lives precisely because it’s not about us. Temptation is an assault by the demonic powers on the rival empire of the Messiah. That’s why conversion to Christ doesn’t diminish the power of temptation—as we often assume—but actually, counterintuitively, ratchets it up. If you bear the Spirit of the One the powers rage against, they will seek to tear down the icon of the Crucified they see embedded in you (1 Pet. 4:14; Rev. 12:17). Ultimately, the agony of temptation is not about you or me. We’re targeted because we resemble Jesus, our firstborn brother. We all, whether believers or not, bear some resemblance to Jesus because we share with him a human nature in the image of God. As we come to find peace with God through Jesus, though, we begin a journey of being conformed more and more into the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). The demons shriek in the increasing glory of that light, and they’ll seek even more frenetically to put it out of their sight. (Pg 21, Emphasis added)

Dowload the first chapter (pdf) free here. Buy the book here.

Ashamed of the Gospel

On my list of top favorite books posted on the BCLR blog several weeks ago was John MacArthur's, Ashamed of the Gospel.  This book has recently been republished by Crossway.  Suffice it to say, this book has had a tremendous influence on me and my earlier ministry, revealing the worldliness I had adopted in place of godliness.

Perhaps the best explanation of why this book has been republished can be heard from the author himself.  In the Preface to the 2010 Edition, John MacArthur writes,

Sometime in the summer of 2007, I picked up a copy of Ashamed of the Gospel for the first time in fourteen years and started thumbing through it. Before I put the book down again, I had devoured eight chapters. I was pleased and amazed to see the enduring relevance of the book—especially since I wrote it to critique the notion that relevance is achieved by dragging the church from fad to fad in a vain effort to stay abreast of the times.

Of course, my passion for the message of this book has not diminished since I first proposed the idea to my publisher, but I was nevertheless surprised and encouraged to see how much of what I wrote in 1991 is expressed exactly as I would want to say it today. While I am disappointed by how accurately (and speedily) the predictions I made have been fulfilled, I am not disheartened, and I intend to keep sounding the warning as long as the Lord gives me breath. In fact, before putting the book down that day, I resolved to do my best to see it released again in a new, expanded edition...

Ashamed of the Gospel is now available at Amazon .  Chapter One is available online for free at the publisher's website.

Or - win a free copy here!  Leave a comment here to enter and I'll choose a winner late Friday.

Blinded By Satan

I'm reading Martin Luther's "Bondage of the Will" as an assignment for Dr. Zemek's theology class.  Every now and then I come across a section that I actually understand! :)  In this passage Luther reminds us not only of the unbeliever's wretchedness, but also Satan's work of blinding them to this wretchedness. 

But the Scripture sets before us a man who is not only bound, wretched, captive, sick and dead, but who, through the operation of Satan his lord, adds to his other miseries that of blindness so that he believes himself to be free, happy, possessed of liberty and ability, whole and alive. Satan knows that if men knew their own misery he could keep no man in his kingdom; God could not fail at once to pit and succour wretchedness that knew itself and cried to Him, for God is proclaimed with mighty praise throughout the Scripture as being near to the brokenhearted. Thus Isaiah 61 bears witness that Christ was sent ‘to preach the gospel to the poor, and to heal the broken-hearted’. Hence, the work of Satan is to hold men so that they do not recognize their wretchedness, but presume that they can do everything that is stated. But the work of Moses the lawgiver is the opposite of this—namely, through the law to lay open to man his own wretchedness, so that, by thus breaking him down, and confounding him in his self-knowledge, he may make him ready for grace, and send him to Christ to be saved. Therefore, the function performed by the law is nothing to laugh at, but is most emphatically serious and necessary.
(Bondage of the Will, Martin Luther.  Baker Book House, 162)

To make things worse, Satan not only blinds men to their ultimate problem he also blinds them to their only solution - the Gospel!

2 Corinthians 4:3-4
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  

Thanks be to God the verse doesn't end there...

2 Corinthians 4:5-6
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And this eye-opening work of God is not just a New Testament idea either...

Psalm 146:7b-8
The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.

Have your eyes been opened? Then rejoice in bewildered amazement as the healed man did in John 9, "...though I was blind, now I see."

This post swiped from www.bclrblog.org.

Crippled Saints

When new Christians are not adequately taught the Word of God, they naturally devise their own standards, their own regulations, and their own systems of religious experience. Rampant legalism and complex religiosity are but symptoms of a more severe disease called Bible anemia. Crippled saints will manufacture crooked canes on which to lean while they hobble through life. God-starved believers will sacrifice their prized possessions to forge some golden calf that they can see and worship. Blinded Christian neophytes will grope for a leader and will embrace anyone who comes along.
~J. Ronald Blue, Overcoming the World Missions Crisis

The Law and the Gospel

Then he took him by the hand, and led him into a very large parlor that was full of dust, because never swept; the which after he had reviewed it a little while, the Interpreter called for a man to sweep. Now, when he began to sweep, the dust began so abundantly to fly about, that Christian had almost therewith been choked. Then said the Interpreter to a damsel that stood by, “Bring hither water, and sprinkle the room;” the which when she had done, it was swept and cleansed with pleasure.

Christian: Then said Christian, What means this?

Interpreter: The Interpreter answered, This parlor is the heart of a man that was never sanctified by the sweet grace of the Gospel. The dust is his original sin, and inward corruptions, that have defiled the whole man. He that began to sweep at first, is the law; but she that brought water, and did sprinkle it, is the Gospel. Now whereas thou sawest, that so soon as the first began to sweep, the dust did so fly about that the room by him could not be cleansed, but that thou wast almost choked therewith; this is to show thee, that the law, instead of cleansing the heart (by its working) from sin, doth revive, Romans 7:9, put strength into, 1 Corinthians 15:56, and increase it in the soul, Romans 5:20, even as it doth discover and forbid it; for it doth not give power to subdue. Again, as thou sawest the damsel sprinkle the room with water, upon which it was cleansed with pleasure, this is to show thee, that when the Gospel comes in the sweet and precious influences thereof to the heart, then, I say, even as thou sawest the damsel lay the dust by sprinkling the floor with water, so is sin vanquished and subdued, and the soul made clean, through the faith of it, and consequently fit for the King of glory to inhabit. John 15:3; Ephesians 5:26; Acts 15:9; Romans 16:25,26.

~John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress

A Quick Guide to 7 Features on Monergism.com

If you've never been to www.monergism.com   you need to bookmark it now.  There is rarely a time when I'm preparing a sermon or lesson that I don't visit monergism to search their wonderful collection of resources.  Below is an email I just received from this ministry that highlights the various features on their site:

1) Monergism Directory of Theology:

While many have been to the home page, less people know about our Directory page. Here we have easy access to links to all major categories on our website listed both topically and alphabetically. If you have not been to this page, it is probably the most important page to bookmark on the site. http://www.monergism.com/directory/

2) Theology FAQ:

A listing to frequently asked questions about a variety of essential topics and controversial issues. Read our recently updated FAQ entitled What is the Gsopel?

3) MP3 Library - New Feature!!!

This section of Monergism.com competes for first place as the most popular page(s) on the site. And it just got better. We recently upgraded the MP3 library by adding a blog-like 'recommended resources' feature on the home page which will be frequently updated to help direct you toward Christian multimedia that stands out as being worth your time. It is such a vast library that some may find it helpful to be directed toward specific resources. Bookmark this page and look at it frequently for updates.

4) Sermon Manuscripts

This is also a very popular part of the website. Look up any text of Scripture and you are likely to find writen expositions.You can also type in any Bible verse into the search box, and find a commentaries on that verse. But if you don't want to miss any, go to the page itself.

5) Hall of Contemporary Reformers

A list of biographies and resources from some recent prophetic voices which are Gospel-centered and Christ-honoring.

6) The Puritans and The Puritan Library

Perhaps the most extensive listing of Puritan resources on the web.

7) ReformedBooks.net

A ministry of Monergism.com which churns our weekly book reviews and ranks the top 3-5 books in every category.

In addition to these features, Monergism.com has begun hosting a significant number of Christ-honoring reformatted classic articles and resources. You can find some of them here.

The Doctrine of Salvation

As part of my seminary assignments, I'm reading "The Doctrine of Salvation," a small paperback by Charles M. Horne that is no longer in print.  You can probably still find a used copy on Amazon.comfor a few bucks.

By way of recommending this very readable little book, allow me to just share a few of Horne's thoughts, two of the helpful charts he includes, and a couple of great quotes he often adds to aid the reader in understanding a particular issue.

Reflecting on Paul's message and method described in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Horne concludes, "...preaching is not the proclamation of a preacher's private opinions, nor the public airing of his doubts, but rather the full authoritative proclamation of the Word of God."

As we try to understand the different aspects of our salvation in Christ, Horne considers four facets:  sacrifice, propitiation, reconciliation and redemption.  He says:

1. Sacrifice is directed to the need created by our guilt. 
2. Propitiation is directed to the need that arises from the wrath of God.
3. Reconciliation is directed to the need created by God's alienation from us.
4. Redemption is directed to the need created by man's bondage to sin.
   

Horne explains justification as the restoration of our spiritual relation to God.  He explains it to include 3 things:

1. The removal of guilt by the imputation of Christ's righteousness.
2. The removal of condemnation by the gift of forgiveness.
3. The removal of separation by the restoration to fellowship.

And here's a quote that would make a good twitter feed:


"Strictly speaking, it's not even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ who saves through faith."

Here are a couple of the charts that the author includes throughout the book that I've found very helpful & clarifying.

Lastly, here are a couple of quotes that Charles Horne includes from other theologians.  I've found them to be incredibly helpful in summarizing or drawing conclusions in regards to the different aspects of soteriology.

...Fear is not faith; remorse is not repentance; nor is there sufficient power in mere terror to effect the conversion of the heart.  The heart is turned by the attraction of the Saviour's love...
James Buchanan, The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church.  We are fighting today for costly grace...Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

Reconciliation is much more than a change of feeling on man's part towards God, and must imply first of all a change of relation in God towards man.

W.H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology

So now you've had a very piece-mealed exposure to this great book by Charles M. Horne.  I trust it's been helpful and that it might  have encouraged you to obtain your own copy.

Can God be Known?

While trying to organize my thoughts in response to a blog post I read recently, I found Wayne Grudem's chapter outline (from his Systematic Theology text) helpful.  In particular, the Scripture references that he lists are most valuable in understanding how much we can truly know about our God Who is incomprehensible.  Amazingly glorious is the fact that this infinite God condescends to mortal man to reveal Himself to us!  But just how much does He tell us?  I think Grudem's work will help answer this question.

I know, I know - I'm cheating by deferring to Dr. Grudem.  But why improve on something if it works? :)  Besides - I'm trying to get a Hermeneutics paper finished & this was much quicker.

Chapter 10: The Knowability of God
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (pages 149 - 155)

(Grand Rapids: Zondervan and Leicester, England: InterVarsity, 1994)

Can we really know God? How much of God can we know?


A) The Necessity for God to Reveal Himself to Us

1) Even general revelation depends on God’s choice to reveal himself through the created
order. (Rom. 1:19)
2) If we are to know God personally in salvation, it is clearly necessary for God to reveal
himself to us. (M att. 11:27; 1 Cor. 1:21; John 1:18)
a) All human beings have a tendency to misinterpret the revelation about God found in nature. (Rom. 1:18, 21, 25)
3) We need the Bible to properly understand any revelation from God or about him (in
nature, history, our consciences).

B) We can never fully understand God.

1) Because God is infinite and we are finite, we must affirm the incomprehensibility of God or that God can never be fully understood. (Ps 145:3, 147:5; 1 Cor. 2:10-12; Rom. 11:33; Isa. 55:9; Job 26:14)
2) God’s incomprehensibility means that we can never, in this life or the next, have an
exhaustive knowledge of God. This is good! We should continue to learn more about
God and enjoy doing this – forever! (Col. 1:10)

C) Yet we can know God truly.

1) Although we cannot know God exhaustively, we can know God truly because all that
Scripture tells us about God is true. (1 John 1:5, 4:8; John 4:24; Rom. 3:26)
2) Moreover, we know God himself, not just facts about him. (Jer. 9:23-24; John 17:3; Heb. 8:11; 1 John 2:13, 5:20)


You can listen to the audio here.
Find more resources from Wayne Grudem here.

"Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”  Jeremiah 8:23-24

Worship & Judgment in the book of the Revelation

As a Christian book, the Apocalypse is characterized by song and worship. While portraying judgment upon sin, a note of joy and praise is heard repeatedly. Some twenty songs of praise and worship are recorded in it. Saints and angels, as well as all nature, are pictured as sharing in the worship of God and the Lamb. The worship is joyous and wholehearted. A number of the songs record the reactions of the witnesses to the just judgments of God being poured out upon an evil world.
It insists that the only proper object of man's worship is God (19:10; 22:9). Both men and angels joyfully unite in their worship of the Lamb of God (5:8-14). The book also shows and denounces wrong worship. It castigates all idolatry and shows that the worship of any man or of Satan will be judged. Worship of the beast and his image is a special object of warning.

D. Edmond Hiebert, An Introduction to the New Testament: Three Volume Collection. Volume 3. (Waynesboro, Georgia: Gabriel Publishing, 2003)

No Heroic Defiance

"Create in me and in your church a sense of profound respect for questions of conscience. We are so lax. We have nothing of a watchman mentality. We trumpet our freedom in the gospel, but our living looks more like an easygoing indifference to matters of right and wrong. Lord, we even feel superior to previous generations of believers, who at least took moral questions seriously. We view their faith as strict and narrow. But we ourselves are so soft, so casually compliant, so unthinking and undiscerning and uncaring, we are no different from the world around us. We are the influenced, not the influential, because our faith has no moral power, no unbending resolve, no heroic defiance grounded in profoundly held personal conviction. O Lord, awaken us! Enlighten our darkness. Sensitize our dullness. Give us backbone. The world will never be won by Christians like us. "

~Ray Ortlund, Jr., A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book of Romans

Freebie Friday

This week's book giveaway is Tim Challies' "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment." If you aren't familiar with Tim's website, go there now from some great stuff!

The random topic for this giveaway is: Gameshows.

Leave your name & your favorite gameshow (past or present) in the comments.

And, my apologies for the absence of Freebie Fridays the past couple of weeks & my apologies to my friend, Matt Henslee, who won the MacArthur book a few weeks ago & I haven't even told him yet.

Forgiveness

When we forgive a debt or an offense or an injury, we don’t require a payment for settlement. That would be the opposite of forgiveness. If repayment is made to us for what we lost, there is no need for forgiveness. We have our due. 
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.

That is what God does to us when we trust Christ: “Everyone
who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name”
(Acts 10:43). If we believe in Christ, God no longer holds our sins
against us. This is God’s own testimony in the Bible: “I, I am he
who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake” (Isaiah
43:25). “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove
our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

But this raises a problem. We all know that forgiveness is not
enough. We may only see it clearly when the injury is great—like
murder or rape. Neither society nor the universe can hold together
if judges (or God) simply say to every murderer and rapist, “Are
you sorry? Okay. The state forgives you. You may go.” In cases
like these we see that while a victim may have a forgiving spirit,
the state cannot forsake justice.

So it is with God’s justice. All sin is serious, because it is against
God (see chapter 1). He is the one whose glory is injured when we
ignore or disobey or blaspheme him. His justice will no more
allow him simply to set us free than a human judge can cancel all
the debts that criminals owe to society. The injury done to God’s
glory by our sin must be repaired so that in justice his glory shines
more brightly. And if we criminals are to go free and be forgiven,
there must be some dramatic demonstration that the honor of God
is upheld even though former blasphemers are being set free.
That is why Christ suffered and died. “In him we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses”

(Ephesians 1:7). Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience
is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven. That’s why we
call it grace. But it cost Jesus his life. That is why we call it just.
Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins
against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right
for God to do this.

From John Piper's book, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

Free online book here.

Freebie Friday

Today's giveaway is a 365 page devotional book by John MacArthur called "Daily Readings from the Life of Christ." If you're not familiar with the teaching/preaching ministry of Pastor MacArthur, just click here and start anywhere - it's all good!

Here's a brief description of today's book from gbibooks.com:

This devotional book by John MacArthur is meant for every believer. Jesus Christ is the climactic centerpiece of all God's work-past, present, and future-and this daily devotional focuses on Christ and His Word. With insights on the life of Jesus, thoughts to ponder, and wisdom gleaned from years of careful study, Daily Readings from the Life of Christ delivers a fresh realization of the grace of God in Christ for each day. Your hungry heart will be focused on God and His Word.

This first volume will take you through the first year of our Saviour’s public ministry.

I am so thankful for the pastors under which God has placed me in the local church. There are also men such as John MacArthur that have had a significant influence in my sanctification (i.e., growth as a believer). So, aside from your local pastor(s), tell me who your "favorite" radio or print pastor is & why. I'll randomly pick a winner from all the entries.

Again - for the record - we should be careful of this.

Congrats to last week's winner:

Gina Eggebrecht