Book Review: Assured by Greg Gilbert

Many Christians struggle with assurance in many ways. Some struggle with it because they do not feel saved. Others because they have a sin that they keep repeating after asking God for forgiveness and repenting from it. Still they are some that struggle with it after a sermon they heard from their pastor which promoted legalism rather than grace.

Can a Christian know they are saved? How can we have assurance we are saved? This is what Greg Gilbert covers in his latest book, Assured. In this book, he gives our four sources of assurance based on the Word of God:

The gospel of Jesus Christ.

The promises of God.

The witness of the Spirit.

The fruit of obedience.

The gospel is the message that God has saved sinners from their sin and has given them eternal life. In His Word, God has promised that the ones who are His will never be forgotten or let go despite out sins. The witness of the Spirit is God's Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are His children as taught in Romans 8. The fruit of obedience is our outward expression of our love for God as we seek to do what pleases Him. Jesus said the one who loves Him, is the one who obeys Him (John 14:21).

At the end of book, Gilbert addresses besetting sins. Those are the sins that we seem to not get rid of no matter how mature we are in the faith. Gilbert tells his readers while it is discouraging that these sins are still within us, we must not lose heart. This is not an indication that we have lost our salvation. Jesus promised that no one, not even ourselves, can snatch us from the Father's hand.

Finally, Christians should always strive for assurance. The way to do that is to be constantly reminded of the promises of God in the gospel. We must also do the things that please God and not walk in this journey alone, which means Christians are to be faithful church members. Get together with a family believers that will walk with you and you walk with them in our journey to be more like Jesus.

Greg Gilbert has been one of my favorite writers for some time. I have enjoyed every book he has written and Assured is no exception. The book is short and easy to read that will be a great tool to go through a fellow believer who is struggling with assurance of their salvation. This is will also be good for you if you are struggling with assurance as well.

Thanks Baker Books for letting me review this book.

Book Review: Favor by Greg Gilbert

Ever heard someone claiming they have received favor from the Lord or someone preaching you can get the Lord's favor by doing certain things? I am sure we have heard something similar to those scenarios at some point in our walk with Jesus. Many times they are from TV preachers claiming they know how to get favor from the Lord yet they do it to where they deceive their listeners by asking them for money. Is that what it means to have the favor of the Lord or does it mean something else?

Greg Gilbert, pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, KY, addresses what it means to have the favor of the Lord in his latest book called, Favor: Finding Life at the Center of God's Affection. Gilbert beings with the false scenario of what most Christians have when it comes to the favor of the Lord. Many think the favor of God is on them when the balance in your checking account is excellent, when you get a close parking spot, or your kids bring home straight A's on their report card. Those are all good things but even unbelievers can have those. The favor of God is not some prosperity gospel teaching, it is a Biblical teaching.

What the favor of the Lord is pleasure to those to whom He is pleased with. Who gets the favor of the Lord? This is where Gilbert shares the gospel and says that those Christ has redeemed have the favor of the Lord. God the Father favored the Son and since we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we have the favor of God because He is pleased with His Son and as a result is pleased with us.

How do we get this favor of the Lord? Gilbert assures his readers that this is something we do not have to work for. God has provided that for us in the finished work of Christ. The favor of the Lord is given to us by grace through faith and not by works. Since we come to faith in Christ, we are united with Him and God will never be displeased with us because He cannot be displeased with His Son. True believers will never lose the favor of God.

The rest of the book deals with some practical application as to day to day living with the favor of the Lord. God's favor means that we can be content in this world no matter what happens because God is pleased with us. This is a favor that will never be lost because we have peace with God through the finished work of Christ. Since we are His children, we are highly favored as sons and daughters of the King.

There is one point in the book that I am wrestling with and that is Jesus earning God's favor. Jesus never sinned and did not have earn salvation because He is the Son of God. He won God's favor by living for us and dying for us. This is something I wrestle with because it seems that Jesus had to earn something that was already His. However, we see in Luke 2:52 that "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." Not saying I fully agree or disagree with what Gilbert wrote on this matter, but it is something that I am wrestling with.

The favor of God is a teaching that has been misunderstood for sometime. I was delighted this book came out for such a time as this when the church really needs to look at what the Bible says versus what is being taught by men and women who preach false doctrine. If you are one who has no idea what the favor of the Lord is, this book is for you. For those who have heard a false teaching on the favor of the Lord, I recommend that you read this book.

Thanks Baker Books for letting me review this book.

Additional Resource:

Glimpse a Bigger View of God’s Favor with Collin Hansen and Greg Gilbert

Other Books by Greg Gilbert:

What is the Gospel?

Why Trust The Bible?

Who is Jesus?

What Is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission with Kevin DeYoung

Preach: Theology Meets Practice with Mark Dever

Don’t Just Hear—Do!

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world (James 1:19-27).

There’s a huge difference between hearing the Word of God and doing it. In fact, just to hear God’s Word has no spiritual value at all. You have to do it—follow it, obey it—for there to be any good in it for you. You can listen to sermons, read the Bible, and do your devotional reading every day, but if you don’t obey God’s Word, you’re not really accomplishing much at all.

That’s James’s message in 1:19–27. There are some texts in the Bible that are difficult to understand, ones that you really have to analyze in order to grasp their meaning. There are others, though, that just punch you right between the eyes, and this is one of those. There’s no doubt about what James is saying. Simply hearing God’s Word is not enough. You have to do what it says.

Verses 19–20 can seem a bit random here. If James’s point is that we as Christians need to hear and obey God’s Word, what are these verses about hearing, speaking, and getting angry doing? The answer is that they are paving the road for James’s exhortation to receive and do the word. After all, much of our trouble in really hearing and then really doing God’s Word comes because we ourselves are too eager to speak our own opinions, too slow to hear God’s voice in his Word, or too full of anger, agitation, irritation, and distraction to give it the attention it deserves.

What today is keeping you from really hearing—and then doing—God’s Word? Are you distracted by work, family, your task list, phone calls to make, vacations to plan, appointments to keep, and, “Aaarrrgghh! It all just gets away from me!”? Are there things that you have come to value more than you value God’s Word? Are you discontented with where God has you in life right now? Any and all of that can contribute to our natural tendency to let our church attendance, our devotions, and our reading of Scripture become rote and lifeless.

Take some time today to determine what might be keeping you from doing God’s Word—from (as James says in verses 26–27) being careful about your words, caring for those in need, and not falling into friendship with an ungodly world. Don’t look in the mirror and then forget what you’ve seen (vv. 23–24); look deeply into the word of truth, obey it, and see how God will bless you—not just in the hearing but in the doing! (v. 25).

Greg Gilbert from the ESV Men's Devotional Bible

Is Church Membership Taught In The Bible?

It seems a lot of Christians argue over the issue for church membership. Some say the Bible does not say anything about it while others do. Some have also said that church membership is just to keep an eye out on the people just to see if they are coming or not.

Most of the arguments have been over the Bible and church membership. Does the Bible really teach church membership? According to Greg Gilbert, the answer is yes. Greg recently addressed what the Bible said in the area of church membership over at the International Mission Board's website:

If you’re like most people, the word “membership” probably doesn’t cause you to well up with any deep spiritual emotion. For most of us, membership is something most associated with junk mail from credit card companies or a high-pressure sales pitch at a gym. When it comes to the church, perhaps it’s viewed as a bureaucratic tool for keeping track of people. Some consider it irretrievably Western—a faintly imperialist concept that really ought to be abandoned when we begin to plant churches in other cultures.

I understand that impression, especially given how many churches treat the concept and reality of membership. But what’s needed is to return to the Bible itself and see whether it talks about church membership, and if so, what the nature and meaning and purpose of that concept is in the first place.

Church Membership According to Jesus

The idea of church membership began to take shape in Matthew 16 and 18 when Jesus first began to constitute his church. There he gave the church the keys of the kingdom, which means that he gave it authority to speak in his name both to what the gospel is and who is rightly confessing the gospel.

If someone understands and confesses the gospel rightly, the church is given authority by King Jesus to say, “Yes, you’re a genuine believer in Christ,” and is, therefore, to be baptized and join in the life of the church. If not, the church also has the authority, granted by the King, to say, “No, you don’t understand the gospel, you’re not confessing it and living according to it, and therefore we will not continue to affirm that you’re a Christian.” That’s the power of the keys Jesus gave to the church, and that ability to affirm who is confessing the gospel rightly and who is not is the outline of what we mean by the term “church membership.”

Church Membership in the Book of Acts

You can see that reality casting its shadow in the story written in the Book of Acts from the beginning of the church. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached the gospel and told people to be baptized. Then, in Acts 2:41, “three thousand souls were added to their number.” Even at the beginning, then, the first Christians knew who they were. The life of the church wasn’t just a matter of “come when you can.” There was a defined, recognized group of people who believed, were baptized, and were part of the number.

It’s not just that they knew each other, though. Those early Christians lived life together. They attended the temple together (2:46) as more and more were “added to their number” (2:47) until in Acts 4:4 the number had risen to five thousand (and that’s just counting the men)! To be a part of “the number” wasn’t just a lifeless bureaucratic reality, either. Acts 4:32 reports that they were “of one heart and soul.”

Amazingly, even with upwards of five thousand people in “the number,” that earliest church in Jerusalem continued to meet together. Acts 5:12 says that they were “all together” in a large place called Solomon’s Portico; 6:2 even says the “full number” of them came together in a business meeting to discuss how to care better for widows. And through all of this, those early Christians called themselves a church— that is an assembly, a gathering.

So, in the very first church in Jerusalem, even as large as it was, the first Christians knew who they were. There were those who were part of the number, and there were those who were not, and the dividing line between the two was baptism. A person would become a believer, the church would exercise the keys and say, “Yes, you seem to be a genuine believer,” then he or she would be baptized and thereby join the life of the church—its joys and pains and problems and solutions. That’s membership.

Church Membership throughout the New Testament

Membership casts its shadow in other places in the Bible too. It’s seen in Matthew 18, for example, where Jesus explained how the church is to use the authority of the keys to remove its affirmation of someone’s profession of faith. The end of that process is that the person is made an outsider. That is, they’re no longer one of “the number.”

First Corinthians 5 gives us a look at another similar situation in which Paul tells the church in 5:2 to “remove this man from among you.” Obviously, that doesn’t mean they are supposed to physically toss him out of the room or bar the doors against him. No, they wanted the man to attend the gatherings of the church, to hear the word, and repent. What it means to “remove” him is that they are to make it clear that they are withdrawing their affirmation of his claim to be a Christian. When you assemble, Paul told them, “hand him over to Satan.” That’s keys of the kingdom language: They are to transfer him out of the church (the realm of King Jesus) and into the world (the realm of Satan).

Sometimes, I think we assume that because all that we find in the New Testament happened two thousand years ago, the early church must have accomplished it in some way that’s more interesting—more organic—than the way we might accomplish it now. But apparently, they did it exactly like we might.

Deciding by Majority Vote

In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul returned to the situation he faced in 1 Corinthians 5 (in which he told the church to remove the unrepentant man from among them) and told the church to bring the man back into the number of disciples. The man repented and, therefore, should be restored. But look in 2:6. Paul said that the church took the action of disaffirming the man’s profession of faith “by the majority.” And how did they determine a majority? They counted! Apparently, the church voted, whether by voice or hands or ballot, and that vote was the church’s way of speaking and acting, of exercising the authority of the keys that had been granted to them by King Jesus.

The Boundary around God’s People

When you pull it all together, the important thing to see is that the Bible consistently talks about the church having a boundary. There are people who are in and people who are out. Definitively. There is “a number,” and a person is part of it or not.

What’s more, that reality is a formal and recognized relationship. Both the church and the individual Christian recognize that such a relationship exists, and the church acts in a formal way both to create and dissolve it. To create it, it baptizes (or recognizes a prior baptism). To dissolve it, it votes to “hand someone over to Satan.”

Membership Means Relationship

But still, the question remains: does the Bible ever explicitly talk about church membership? Yes, it does. It even uses the word. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul addresses a particular local church in the city of Corinth, explaining to them that instead of being divided and jealous of each other, they should be united. In the course of that argument he says in 12:27, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

There it is. All those shadows in the New Testament—of making someone part of the number, of putting someone out of the number, of life lived together in mutual commitment—those shadows point to this biblical image of the local church being the Body of Christ.

Membership Means Commitment

What that means is that membership is not a cold, lifeless word having to do with names on a list. It’s a flesh-and-blood, lively word that describes the parts of a body. That, after all, is what the word “member” means. It’s a fascinating image, really, because it captures vividly what it means to be part of “the number” of a church.

For one thing, it simply underlines the truth—which we see again and again in the Bible—that a local church has a boundary. Think about it. It’s actually very clear what is a part of your body and what is not. Maybe you wear a wedding ring. I do, and it almost never comes off my finger. It’s about as close to my body as anything can possibly be. You might even call it a regular, committed attender and participant in the life of my body. But I also know that it’s not a part of my body. What’s more, as close as that ring may be to my body, it doesn’t really share in my body’s life, its pleasure, or its pain. If I stub my toe, my ring doesn’t react. My finger does though.

Membership Is Not a Modern, Western Concept

The point and heart of church membership isn’t necessarily signing something, or having your name on a list or in a booklet. The point is a mutually recognized, formal relationship between a Christian and church in which both of them say—in a way that’s recognized by both—that “I am committed to you.” I will share your joy and your pain. I will take responsibility for you. I will love and care for you. That’s the meaning of membership. It’s not a modern, Western concept, but rather a deeply biblical reality born of the spiritual union between Christ and his church—the reality that each local church is the body of Christ, and we as individual Christians are members of it.


Sources:

Yes, The Bible Does Teach Church Membership, Part 1

Yes, The Bible Does Teach Church Membership, Part 2

The Resurrection Verified Jesus's Claims

To Christians, the resurrection means many important things. It means that those of us who are united to Jesus by faith will be resurrected just like He was. It means that God fully accepted the sacrifice for sins that Jesus offered on the cross and that it was infinitely more than sufficient to pay our moral debt. It means that Jesus now lives to lead, rule, protect, intercede for, and do good for His people who are still alive on earth. And it also means that God ratified, endorsed, vindicated, and confirmed all of Jesus's claims about who He was and what kind of authority He possessed.

Greg Gilbert, Why Trust The Bible?

My Journey Through 1 Peter

Earlier this summer, I decided to tackle the book of 1 Peter not for the purpose of sermon preparation or leading in a Bible study, but for my own edification and personal growth. After the Supreme Court's decision to legalize Gay Marriage, I felt 1 Peter became a very important book because it is addressed to those who are "elect exiles" (1 Peter 1:1). A couple of weeks ago, Tim Brister issued a challenge to memorize the entire book of 1 Peter in the same manner that a challenge was made to memorize Philippians, which I failed miserably, but by God's grace will strive for again.

Why should a Christian memorize scripture? First, God's word tell us not to let his word depart from our mouths and meditate on it (Joshua 1:8). Second, those who have been blessed by God, let His word be their delight (Psalm 1:1-2). Third, Jesus memorized scripture and used it quite a bit in His earthly ministry. For example, when tempted by the devil, he counteracted the temptation with scripture. Fourth, there will be a time when you won't have a Bible handy. You may have an app on your phone, but there could be no service. You could be on an airplane where cell phones are not allowed to used. You never know when or where you will not access to a Bible, so memorization is important. Finally, having scripture memorized will be good as you meditate on the goodness of God and remind yourself of the gospel.

This past Sunday, I started my journey to memorize 1 Peter which I know will be a challenge but at the same time will be rewarding. I will continue to study through 1 Peter even as I am memorizing it. I will also be revisiting places that I have already to remind myself of the things that I learned in my previous studies. I just found out that the ladies in our church are reading 1 Peter along with Jen Wilkin's book, Women of the Word, which my wife will be involved in. What a great opportunity for my wife and I to grow together as we read God's Word together.

If you wish to join me on this journey or if already have been, praise God. Let me give you a few resources which Tim has already given a couple, but I would like to share what I have been using in my study of 1 Peter.

Wayne Grudem's commentary on 1 Peter

R.C. Sproul's commentary on 1 Peter which also contains 2 Peter

Everyday Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, which a study of 1 Peter in the context of being a gospel community.

Greg Gilbert over at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, recently began a sermon series on 1 Peter. Here are the sermons in the series thus far:

Salvation 101

Be Who You Are

You Belong To God

Fear God, Honor the Emperor

John Piper released a couple teaching videos that covered 1 Peter 1:1-2, which says,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.


The first one is about the letter to the exiles followed by being known by God before we were born.

1 Peter 1:1–2, Part 1 // A Letter to Exiles from Desiring God on Vimeo.

1 Peter 1:1–2, Part 2 // Known by God Before You Were Born from Desiring God on Vimeo.

Who is Jesus to You?

This was posted recently on Crossway which was adapted from Greg Gilbert's latest book, Who is Jesus?:

What Do You Think?

Who do you think Jesus is?

Maybe you’ve never really given it much thought. In a way, that’s entirely understandable. After all, we’re talking about a man who was born in the first century into an obscure Jewish carpenter’s family. He never held any political office, never ruled any nation, never commanded any armies. He never even met a Roman emperor. Instead, for three-and-a-half years this man Jesus simply taught people about ethics and spirituality, he read and explained the Jewish Scriptures to Jewish people, and if the eyewitness accounts of his life are to be believed at all, he also did some pretty out-of-the-ordinary things.

But then again, Jesus also ran bitterly afoul of the authorities of his day, and not long after he started his public ministry, he wound up being executed on a cross by one of Rome’s many provincial governors—a kind of imperial middle manager for “the people who had the real power.

On top of that, all this happened some two thousand years ago. So why are we still talking about him? Why is this man Jesus so . . . inescapable?

Give Jesus a Chance

Regardless of what you personally think about him, surely we can agree that Jesus is a towering figure in the history of the world. One respected historian put Jesus’s influence like this: “If it were possible, with some sort of super-magnet, to pull up out of that history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left?” That’s a good question, and the answer is probably, “Not much!”

“But it’s not just that Jesus is inescapable in some distant, historical kind of way. He’s also inescapable in a much closer way than that. Think about it: You probably have at least one or two acquaintances who would say that they are Christians. Maybe they even go to church regularly and sing songs about—or even to—Jesus. If you press them on it, they might even say that they have a relationship with him, and that their lives in one way or another are organized around him.

Not only that, but your city is likely dotted with “church buildings of various kinds. Some of those buildings probably have thriving communities of Christians who gather in them on Sundays. Others probably aren’t even churches at all anymore. But the point is that everywhere you look, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see reminders of this one particular man who lived about two millennia ago. And all of it presses the question on us: who is he?

It’s not an easy question to answer, mainly because we haven’t managed to come to any society-wide consensus about who Jesus really was . . . or is. True, very few people doubt his existence anymore. The basic facts of his life—where and when he lived, how he died—are all pretty well agreed upon. But there’s still massive disagreement, even among people who call themselves Christians, about the significance of his life and death. Was he a prophet? A teacher? Something entirely different? Was he the Son of God, or just an unusually gifted man? And for that matter, who did he think he was? His death at the hands of the Romans—was that part of the plan all along, or did he just get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? And then there’s the biggest question of all: After he was executed, did Jesus stay dead like the rest of us do, or did he . . . not?

For all the disagreement, though, everyone seems to agree on one thing: Jesus was an extraordinary person. He did things and said things that ordinary people simply don’t do and say. Even more, the things Jesus said weren’t just witty proverbs or ethical gems. They weren’t pieces of advice on how to live better in the world. No, Jesus said things like, “I and the Father [by which he meant God] are one,” and, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” And, maybe most shocking of all, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

You see what I mean? Ordinary people don’t say those sorts of things! God and I are one? No one comes to God except by me? Those aren’t ethical teachings that you can decide to incorporate into your life or not. They are claims. They are Jesus saying what he thinks is the truth.

Now of course you may not accept what he says. You may reject it outright. But think about it: Wouldn’t it make sense not to do that too quickly? Wouldn’t it make sense to get to know this man a bit before you completely toss off what he says about you? Let me be bold and make a request: Give Jesus a chance. It may be that as you learn more about him, you’ll realize that there are actually some very good reasons for believing what he said—about himself, about God, and about you.

The Most Important Question You’ll Ever Consider

So, who is Jesus? That’s always been the question. From the moment the shepherds showed up claiming that angels had told them about his birth, to the day he astonished the disciples by calming the sea, to the moment the sun itself stopped shining on the day that he died, everyone was always left asking, “Who is this man?”

Maybe you don’t know much about Jesus at all. Maybe you already know quite a bit about Jesus. Either way, I hope that as you explore his life, you’ll begin to get to know Jesus better—not so much as an academic subject or a religious figure, but as the man the earliest Christians knew personally and as a friend. I hope you’ll see what amazed them about him, and I hope you’ll come away understanding better why millions say, “That is the man I’m trusting with my eternity.”

Beyond that, I also hope you take Jesus’s claims seriously. When someone claims to be your God, you really only have two choices, right? You can reject the claim or you can accept it. What you can’t do, at least for very long, is suspend judgment and just see how it plays out.

Jesus claimed some amazing things about himself, and also about you. Like it or not, that has radical implications for your life. So I hope you think hard about Jesus, understand his claims and their implications more clearly, and come to a firm answer to the question, who is Jesus?

Really, it’s the most important question you’ll ever consider.


Books by Greg Gilbert:

What is the Gospel?

Preach: Theology Meets Practice with Mark Dever

What is the Mission of the Church? with Kevin DeYoung

Don't Be More Gospel-Centered Than Jesus

Great conversation between J.D. Greear, Greg Gilbert, and Trevin Wax.

Don't Be More Gospel-Centered Than Jesus from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Trevin Wax is the author of Counterfeit Gospels and Holy Subversion.

Greg Gilbert is the author of What is the Gospel and co-author of What is the Mission of the Church? with Kevin DeYoung.

J.D. Greear is author of Gospel: Recovering the Power That Made Christianity Revolutionary.