Any view or understanding of eternity and/or time that denies, diminishes, or even devalues the glory and necessity of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is a perversion of the Gospel of God's grace in Him. God's preachers preach Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) and His righteousness established on the cross as the sole basis upon which God justifies the ungodly. It is the heart and soul of our message to sinners. God's people glory in the cross, for it is our ground of justification before a holy God and our hope of eternal life (Gal. 6:14).
-Pastor Bill Parker, Pastor of 13st. Baptist Church, Ashland, Ky.
Excerpts from: Free Grace Salvation
The Apostle tells us, there be some troublers that will preach another gospel and so pervert the gospel of Christ. These lead souls to utter despair, and hide the free grace of Christ and tell the people that by amending their lives they will obtain the favour and mercy of God. But we are taught that no inventions of men can reach the deep rooted leprosy of sin, nothing short of the blood of sprinkling can take it away. "By grace ye are saved." When we fall into distress, and deep temptation, we then find we have no power to help ourselves. What we would most willingly recommend to others, we find most terribly difficult to exercise ourselves. Despair seems to take hold of us. Yet even here, there is a cry and sometimes [it is] so feeble that we can scarcely believe it can be heard, but in the end we find it proves to be the cry of the poor and destitute, which the Lord regards. It is heard when all our strength is gone, and none shut up or left, to show to us that it is the free grace alone of Christ which saves us. When this comes, it always shows us all quarrels are made up with the Father, through this grace of Christ, and sensible friendship again renewed in the conscience. The Spirit bears witness to this truth, who brings along with it a sweet peace that passeth all understanding.
JAMES BOURNE, 1773-1854
I AM THAT I AM
"I am that I am" Exodus 3:14
Bereavement weeps where once the family beamed with domestic joy. Gardens wither into deserts. Babylons crumble into unsightly ruins. On all things a sad inscription writes "fleeting-transient-vanishing." Time flaps a ceaseless wing, and from the wings decay and death drop down. "I AM THAT I AM" sits high above all this. He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." The unchangeableness of Jesus is the unchangeableness of His attributes. Each shines brightly in this bright mirror. But a rapid glance at His love and power must suffice. His love is in perpetual bloom. It is always in summer-tide. The roots are deeply buried in Himself; therefore the branches cannot fade. Believer, drink hourly of this cup of joy. Allow not Satan to infuse a poisonous doubt. Christ loved you largely when, in the councils of eternity, He received you into His heart. He loved you truly when, in the fullness of time, He took upon Himself your curse, and drained your hell-deep dues. He loved you tenderly when He showed you, by the Spirit, His hands and His feet, and whispered to you that you were His. He loves you faithfully while He ceases not to intercede in your behalf, and to scatter blessings on your person and your soul. He will love you intensely in heaven when you are manifested as His purchase and crowned as His bride. To each inquiry-has He loved? Does He love? And will He love? The one reply is, "I AM THAT I AM." Do not raise the objection, if He thus loves, why am I thus? Why is my path so rugged, and my heart like flint? You will soon know that your bitterest trials and your sorest pains are sure tokens of His love. The father corrects because he loves.
Henry Law - (1797-1884)
(From the Gospel Standard Magazine, 1838)
Now the Lord must come to the prisoner and set him free, and not wait until he has let himself out of prison, and then come and assist him. O no; Jehovah Himself must do the deed; for the poor prisoner can only groan, sigh, and pray for deliverance, but cannot effect it. If David could have obtained liberty by his own exertions, why does he pray, "Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Your name"? Observe the object of the poor prisoner in prayer to be brought out of prison; it is not merely ease and comfort to himself, but the glory of God: "that I may praise Your name." Thus, praise to the name of the Lord is the consequence of His delivering mercy to our souls; praise to sovereign love, atoning blood, and Almighty power, combined together, in bringing a soul out of prison."
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