February 2, 2014

"A MIND AT PERFECT PEACE WITH GOD"

A mind at perfect peace with God:
Oh, what a word is this!
A sinner reconciled through blood:
This, this indeed is peace.

By nature and by practice far,
How very far from God!
Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him
Through faith in Jesus' blood.

So nigh, so very nigh to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son,
I am as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me.

Why should I ever anxious be
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o'er me night and day,
And tells me, "Thou art Mine".

(Tune: “Amazing Grace” #236)

Righteous grace is at the heart and soul of the gospel: without it, the gospel is dead. Without righteous grace, there is no comfort for the troubled conscience. From first to last, everything in salvation is of grace and that grace comes to us righteously.

1) Did God recognize our absolute guilt, but chose to ignore it since He is our Father?

2) Or, did God acquit us because He loves us and, at the back of it all, He is very good-natured?

3) Or, is God indifferent to sin?

4) Or, was it that because God's absolute holiness demanded He took action against our sin, He punished Christ Jesus at the cross of Calvary?

So, how say you? On what basis does God acquit us? Are we declared not-guilty because God is kind and tender? Or, does God forgive us in a righteous, just and gracious manner? We must be clear on this. We must be clear that, at the cross, our sins were paid for by our substitute. Christ was legally cursed on our behalf (Galatians 3:13). Our gracious acquittal is, therefore, based on the work of righteousness. It was righteousness that had condemned us in the first place. It was righteousness that had barred us from heaven and if ever we were to be saved it had to be done righteously.

Now that Christ has been righteously punished in our place, our condemnation has been righteously and graciously removed (Romans 8:1). Christ has died in place of the ungodly and has been righteously condemned. Believers have now been declared righteous, not because the Lord is nice, but because of righteous grace. Christ died and intercepted our well-earned wrath as He purged and took our sin away (Romans 3:25, Hebrews 1:3, John 1:29).

Since the perfect righteousness of Christ has now been graciously reckoned to us, it would be, therefore, an unrighteous thing for God to condemn anyone for whom Christ died (Romans 4:22-25, Romans 8:34). - Miles Mckee

"HE DRANK DAMNATION DRY"

Luke 26:39: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

The whole of the tremendous debt was put upon his shoulders; the whole weight of the sins of all his people was placed upon him. Once he seemed to stagger under it: "Father, if it be possible." But again he stood upright: "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." The whole of the punishment of his people was distilled into one cup; no mortal lip might give it so much as a solitary sip. When he put it to his own lips, it was so bitter, he well nigh spurned it - "Let this cup pass from me." But his love for his people was so strong, that he took the cup in both his hands, and "At one tremendous draught of love He drank damnation dry" for all his people. He drank it all, he endured all, he suffered all; so that now for ever there are no flames of hell for them, no racks of torment; they have no eternal woes; Christ hath suffered all they ought to have suffered, and they must, they shall go free. The work was completely done by himself, without a helper.

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

~~~ O ~~~

The gospel of Jesus Christ, the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel must be stressed. The gospel is related to every doctrine of the Bible, but each of those doctrines is empty without the glory of Jesus Christ. I am convinced that faithful heralds of the gospel are much more than mere doctrinaires. I am furthermore convinced that the faithful proclamation of the glorious and unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ would rid churches of the need for the modern glut of "Christian" psychiatrists and psychologists, endless family seminars devoid of the gospel, evangelistic racketeers who misuse and pervert the gospel for their own monetary gain, and the whole host of modern Christless innovations.