“Faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it does not pretend to create salvation, nor to help in it, but it is content humbly to receive it. Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it. Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant to bring the riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges whence she drew them, and owns that grace alone entrusted her with them.”
“For the doctrine of justification by faith is like Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace. …A right view of these things is not possible without a right understanding of justification; so that, when justification falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls, all true knowledge of the grace of God in human life falls with it, and then, as Luther said, the church itself falls. A society like the Church of Rome, which is committed by its official creed to pervert the doctrine of justification, has sentenced itself to a distorted understanding of salvation at every point. Nor can these distortions ever be corrected till Roman doctrine of justification is put right. And something similar happens when Protestants let the thought of justification drop out of their minds: true knowledge of salvation drops out with it, and cannot be restored till the truth of justification is back in its proper place. When Atlas falls, everything that rested on his shoulders comes crashing down too.”
~J.I. Packer, “Introductory Essay,” in James Buchanan, “The octane of Justification: An Outline Of Its History In The Church And Of Its Exposition From Scripture, London: Banner of Truth, 1961, pp. viii, ix
“Whenever I feel that I have sinned and desire to overcome that sin for the future, the devil at the same time comes to me and whispers, ‘How can you be a pardoned person and accepted with God while you still sin in this way?’ If I listen to this I drop into despondency , and if I continued in that state I should fall into despair, and should commit sin more frequently than before; but God’s grace comes in and says to my soul, ‘Thou hast sinned; but did not Christ come and save sinners? Thou art not saved because thou art righteous; for Christ died for the ungodly.’ And my faith says, ‘Though I have sinned, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and I am a child of God still.” And what then? Why the tears begin to flow and I say, ‘How could I ever sin against my God who has been so god to me? Now I will overcome that sin,” and I will get strong to fight with sin through the conviction that I am God’s child.”
~ Charles Hayden Spurgeon, (source unknown) taken from “John MacArthur, “Saved Without A Doubt”, Victor Books, Cook Communications, 2006, pg. 124
“If a man can know nothing truly, man can truly know nothing. We cannot know that the Bible is the Word of God, that Christ died for our sin, or that Christ is alive today at the right hand of the Father. Unless knowledge is possible, Christianity is non-sensical, for it claims to be knowledge. What is at stake in the twentieth century is not simply a single doctrine, such as the Virgin Birth, or the existence of Hell, as important as those doctrines may be, but the whole of Christianity itself. If knowledge is not possible to man, it is worse than silly to argue points of doctrine – it is insane.”
~ Gordon Clark, “Religion, Reason, and Revelation”, 2nd ed. (Jefferson, Md.: The Trinity Foundation, 1986), pg. 252-253
This blog is about serious issues confronting the Gospel. But let me segue to the political for a moment with this super video from Ray Stevens, called; “We The People”. Believe me, it’s worth a listen.
In Leadership Journal, Duke University theologian William Willimon observed,
“I’m a mainline-liberal-Protestant-Methodist-type Christian. I know we’re soft on Scripture. Norman Vincent Peale has exercised a more powerful effect on our preaching that St. Paul. Listen to us on Sunday, and Leo Buscaglia or Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood may come to mind before you think of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. I know we play fast and loose with Scripture. But I’ve always had this fantasy that somewhere, like Texas, there were preachers who preached it all, Genesis to Revelation, without blinking an eye….Do you how disillusioning it has been for me to realize that many of these self-proclaimed biblical preachers now sound more like liberal mainliners than liberal mainliners?”
We write because we are called by our great God to think critically about His Word and the world that surrounds us. We have been inspired by Martin Luther:
“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.” ~At his trial
se it does not pretend to create salvation, nor to help in it, but it is content humbly to receive it. Faith is the tongue that begs pardon, the hand which receives it, and the eye which sees it; but it is not the price which buys it. Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ. She becomes a good servant to bring the riches of the Lord Jesus to the soul, because she acknowledges whence she drew them, and owns that grace alone entrusted her with them.”
a pardoned person and accepted with God while you still sin in this way?’ If I listen to this I drop into despondency , and if I continued in that state I should fall into despair, and should commit sin more frequently than before; but God’s grace comes in and says to my soul, ‘Thou hast sinned; but did not Christ come and save sinners? Thou art not saved because thou art righteous; for Christ died for the ungodly.’ And my faith says, ‘Though I have sinned, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and I am a child of God still.” And what then? Why the tears begin to flow and I say, ‘How could I ever sin against my God who has been so god to me? Now I will overcome that sin,” and I will get strong to fight with sin through the conviction that I am God’s child.”
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