James White on Galatians 5:4 and Hebrews 6:4-6

You have been severed from Christ, you who are being justified by law; you have fallen from grace! (Galatians 5:4)

For in the case of those once having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift and having become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and having fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame (Hebrews 6:4-6).

Galatians 5:4 is written to those who attempt to be justified by their works. They refuse God’s grace, God’s way of righteousness. It is because of this that they are said to be severed from Christ, and to have fallen from grace. These men were not Christians to begin with. There are a number of passages in Hebrews that provide “warnings” to the Church. In each instance, the entire Christian fellowship is addressed. The book of Hebrews is written to all who are a part of that fellowship— including non-believers, some of whom were not completely convinced of the superiority of Christ over the old law, others who were simply hypocrites. The warnings that are provided are needed since we, as human beings, cannot see into the hearts of all men. We cannot assume, simply because someone sits in the pew next to us each Sunday, that they are of God’s elect. 

The minister of God’s people must exhort his people to examine their lives— knowing that some who sit before him are not actually followers of Jesus Christ. However, are we justified, in light of all the plain Scriptures affirming the security of the believer, to take warning passages to the Church and use them to deny that Christ will save His people? Are warning passages sufficient basis to assert that Christ can fail to do the will of the Father? Is this consistent biblical interpretation? I think not.

Adapted from The Sovereign Grace of God by James White

Book Review: What is Saving Faith? by John Piper

What is Saving Faith? Seems like a simple question yet for some Christians it tends to be more confusing which is sad. Some would say saving faith is trusting in Christ alone to save you from your sins. Others would say trust in Christ and do other things to secure your salvation.

The Bible is clear that saving faith comes from Christ we can do nothing to earn it nor add to it to make it more secure. Christians can trust in Christ for their salvation. John Piper believes that saving faith is not just trusting in Christ, it is also treasuring Christ, which he explains in his book, What is Saving Faith?

As I read this book, I am aware that Piper has had some confusing material comes out over the years that sounds like Piper believes we can be right with God through Christ by faith alone but cannot get into heaven by faith alone. This is ironic because one of the chapters of the book addresses why he is not a Roman Catholic which they believe you have to continue to do good deeds and not be in some mortal sin before you die to gain access into heaven. 

Piper addresses that he is taking the Lordship Salvation issue to whole new level. Lordship Salvation is basically if you are Christian who believes Jesus is Lord and your faith is backed by what you do which is Biblical (see James 2:14-26 and the entire book of 1 John). What Piper is suggesting is our faith needs to be affectional. We need to see Christ as our absolute treasure that communicates, we really love Christ. 

Piper's approach almost sounds if you are not an emotional person, you may not be a Christian. This is borderline legalism. I remember hearing a pastor say he would not hire anyone if he cannot ask the question, "When was the last time the gospel brought you to tears?" There is nothing wrong with being emotional preaching the gospel, but to question one's calling or even salvation because they are not emotional is faith plus works. 

Piper does write about how there is surpassing worth in knowing Christ and that we have a message of proclaiming His value. This is something we can all agree on. Paul said his all of his accomplishments of the flesh are rubbish compared to knowing Christ as Lord. We are also to evangelize. My issue with Piper's book is that it sounds like if we are not seeing Christ as treasure and not affectional in our faith, we may not be saved even though we have faith in Christ. Last time I checked, if we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raise Him from the dead you will be saved (Romans 10:9). 

If you desire to read this book, do it with extreme caution. 

I received this book from Crossway in exchange for an honest review.

Rescued from the Wrath to Come

Though the Bible refers to various types of salvation, when it speaks about salvation in the ultimate sense, it’s speaking of the ultimate escape from the ultimate dire human condition. This brings us back to the question I asked the man in Philadelphia so many years ago: “Saved from what?” And the answer, the Scriptures tell us, is that we must be saved from the wrath that is to come. God’s wrath, as we’re told in Romans 1, is revealed to the whole world, and the Bible makes it abundantly clear that there awaits a judgment. 

The greatest calamity that anybody can ever imagine is to be sentenced to hell. In his first epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul writes: For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thess. 1:9–10) 

The ultimate salvation that any human being can ever experience is rescue from the wrath that is to come. Do we believe that there remains a wrath that is to come? I think the greatest point of unbelief in our culture and in our church today is an unbelief in the wrath of God and in His certain promise of judgment for the human race. 

Christians get excited about the return of Jesus. Oh, happy day! Yes, it is a happy day for the saved, but for the unsaved the return of Jesus is the worst of all conceivable calamities. It is a day of desolation, as the prophet Zephaniah foretold. Near is the great day of the Lord. Near, coming very quickly, is that day of wrath, a day of trouble, of distress, destruction, desolation, darkness, gloom. And on the day of the Lord’s wrath, all the earth will be devoured, for He will make a terrifying end to the inhabitants of this world.

Adapted from The Great Rescue: Understanding the Saving Work of Christ by R.C. Sproul

John MacArthur: Is Jesus the Only Way?

Why is the Gospel "The Power of God for Salvation?"

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16, LSB).

Ever wonder why the gospel is the power of God for salvation considering that God is all powerful and can do whatever He wants? I am sure you have. I am sure as you have read through the Bible, you have seen God doing extraordinary things that only He could do. As powerful as He is, why is the gospel the power of God?

The power of the God is the gospel is the "regenerating, life-changing impact of the gospel word through the Holy Spirit is essential because of humanity’s bondage to sin and Satan, and weakness and spiritual inability on account of sin" (Reformation Study Bible). We see and hear this power through the proclamation of the gospel. Paul wrote, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17, LSB).

God could use anything He wanted to get the gospel across the nations, but instead He chose the church to be that instrument using the foolishness of preaching:

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased, through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:21, LSB).

Smoke machines, laser lights, Starbucks with donuts, and even donuts are not what draws out the power of God. It is the preaching of the gospel. It is the preaching of the whole purpose of God (Acts 20:27). Paul said in Ephesians after hearing the word of truth we are sealed with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13). The gospel must be proclaimed. 

The power of God is on display when it is proclaimed. We see the benefits of it when people put their faith in Christ and repent of their sins. 

John MacArthur on Why it is Impossible for Christians to Lose Their Salvation

R.C. Sproul on If A Christian Can Lose His/Her Salvation

We may live in a culture that believes everyone will be saved, that we are “justified by death” and all you need to do to go to heaven is die, but God’s Word certainly doesn’t give us the luxury of believing that. Any quick and honest reading of the New Testament shows that the Apostles were convinced that nobody can go to heaven unless they believe in Christ alone for their salvation (John 14:6; Rom. 10:9–10).

Historically, evangelical Christians have largely agreed on this point. Where they have differed has been on the matter of the security of salvation. People who would otherwise agree that only those who trust in Jesus will be saved have disagreed on whether anyone who truly believes in Christ can lose his salvation.

Theologically speaking, what we are talking about here is the concept of apostasy. This term comes from a Greek word that means “to stand away from.” When we talk about those who have become apostate or have committed apostasy, we’re talking about those who have fallen from the faith or at least from the profession of faith in Christ that they once made.

Read the post here

The Presentness of Salvation

One of a true Christian’s treasures is the “presentness” of his salvation. It is not a far distant thing which he is to have at last, if he does his duty and is good. It is his own in title the moment he believes. He is already pardoned, forgiven, and saved, though not in heaven. Another of a true Christian’s treasures is the “completeness” of his justification. His sins are entirely removed, taken away, and blotted out of God’s book by Christ’s blood. He may look forward to judgment without fear and say, “who is he that condemns them?” (Romans 8:34).

He shall stand without fault before the throne of God. The last, but not the least, of a true Christian’s treasures, is the entire change in his relation and position toward God. He is no longer as one dead before Him – dead, legally, like a man sentenced to die and dead in heart. He is “alive unto God” (Romans 6:11). “He is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Well would it be for Christians if these things were better known! It is lack of knowledge in many cases that is the secret of lack of peace.

Adapted from Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of John by J.C. Ryle

Why Do You Still Need a Check List?

We all have check lists. We have them when we go to grocery store make sure we leave with what we need. We have them during our work week if there are certain tasks that need to be preformed. Some may even have them when packing for vacation especially if you are from a big family.

Check lists are a normal part of life and there is nothing wrong with them, however, when it comes to the Christian life that can be a problem. More specifically, it can be a problem when it comes to salvation. We have heard that we must be born again to enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3), we are children of God when trust in Christ (John 1:12), and we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), yet we will still need a check list to make sure we are still saved.

That check list can be comprised of the following:

Going to church

Giving you 10%

Use a King James Version

Wear a suit and tie (men)

Wear a dress (women)

Make sure your kids have the Bible memorized

This is list can go on and on. What make us have these check lists goes back to the question that Satan in the form of a serpent asked Eve, "Did God actually say...?" (Genesis 3:1). Did God actually saved you are saved by faith alone and not by works? Did God actually say you must be born again to be saved? Did God actually say faith comes by hearing and hearing from the word of Christ?

When we have these check lists, we are questioning the sufficiency of scripture which ultimately is questioning the sufficiency of Christ in regards to our salvation. Christ is enough for our salvation and God's Word is enough to make His plan for salvation to us. While works are evidence of our salvation they are not cause of it. We are saved by faith alone because the Bible says so which means God did actually say that it was so.

My brothers and sisters, stop using check lists in regards to your salvation. You can contribute nothing to it. Our righteous deeds are like filthy rags in the sight of God (Isaiah 64:6, KJV). Our works will never measure up to the perfect righteousness of Christ. Praise the Lord, He has secured us and we are saved because of what He has done for us, not what we can do for Him.

Faith is the Instrumental Cause of Our Salvation

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10).

The anti-gospel which runs through every false religion and every false heart is the “gospel” that says “can do” instead “is finished” by Christ. We are saved by faith alone, not because of any works. What’s more, faith itself is a gift. Faith is not the ultimate good deed that saves us but the instrumental cause of our salvation—grace flows through the channel of faith, but the channel is itself of God’s construction. We are saved by Christ; faith simply acknowledges and rests upon who he is and what he provides.

Because salvation is entirely by the grace of God, we ought never to boast of our spiritual insights or accomplishments. Instead we should rest in Christ our righteousness, our holiness, and our redemption (see 1 Cor. 1:30).

Faith alone justifies, but, the Reformers would say, the faith that justifies is never alone. Good works are not the root of our redemption, but they are the necessary fruit. If God has prepared good deeds beforehand, we must consider how and where we will walk today in order to fulfill his eternal purposes for us in Christ.

Adapted from the ESV Gospel Transformation Study Bible

A Chain in Romans 8:29-30

In Romans 8:29-30 there is a chain, a sequence beginning with foreknowledge: all whom God foreknew He predestined. “And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified.” It is clear that the word “called” here is not referring to the external call of the gospel, which goes out to everyone. For not all who are externally called are justified. Therefore, this text is about the internal call, the work of the Holy Spirit that effectually changes the heart from spiritual death to spiritual life. The effectual call of the Holy Spirit brings to pass in our hearts what God purposed to do from the foundation of the world. All who have been predestined are called effectually by the Holy Spirit; all who are called by the Holy Spirit are justified; and all who are justified are glorified.

Adapted from Everyone's a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology by R.C. Sproul

Burk Parsons: The Unbroken Chain of Salvation

Book Review: Paul Vs James by Chris Bruno

Martin Luther once said that the book of James did not belong the Bible because of chapter 2 where it appears the half-brother of Jesus is communicating that we are justified by works. Of course, if we look more closely at the letter, we know that James was not advocating a salvation by works yet the Apostle Paul wrote that we are justified by faith and not works of the law (Galatians 2:16). To many Christians, this issue seems really confusing. Who is right on this issue? Was James clearly teaching a justification by works while Paul was teaching justification by faith alone? These are all good questions as one wrestles with the Bible.

Chris Bruno addresses these issues of "contradictions" in his latest book, Paul Vs. James. In the beginning of the book, Bruno takes a look at the life of Paul and James in their upbringing and who they were before they were on mission for Jesus. Bruno does point out that James and Paul agreed that Jesus fulfilled the law and their messages were not contradicting one another. Paul focused on what it took for a person to be right with God and that was come to Christ by faith alone. James focused on the aftermath of our conversion where if one has faith, it is demonstrated by works as a result of being born again.

Yes, we are saved by faith alone, but it is a faith that is not alone. Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us that we are saved by grace through faith not by works yet we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. Our lives are a reflection of what Christ has done. To say that you have faith yet have no evidence of it means you do not have faith. This is the message that James was communicating to his readers in his epistle.

This message of faith and works is still communicated in the church today. We need to have a healthy understanding of what the Bible says when we say we are saved by faith alone and saved for works. Bruno gives two examples of the sins we commit that is a contradiction in this teaching. We commit the sin of racism when we tell another race that to be saved you must become like us and have our customs which is what the Galatian church was dealing with when Paul wrote his epistle to them. I must admit I approached this view very cautiously since this book was published by the same company that gave us Woke Church. I do not believe that Bruno was communicating anything that would sound like the Work movement that has infiltrated Christianity today. The other sin, which is against the teaching of justification by works based on our faith is same-sex marriage. You say you are a Christian yet your life does not reflect that if you are for same-sex marriage or even in support of it. The Bible says there will genuine evidence of salvation which includes hating sin.

The issue of the "contradictions" between Paul and James will not go away any time soon. I am thankful Bruno approached this book was ease and clarity knowing there is a lot of confusion in this area. He does say that if you understand that Paul and James do not contradict one another, you have a healthy view of the Bible. I hope for those who do struggle with balancing saved by faith alone but works justify our claiming we have faith, will have a better understanding that this is a Biblical teaching and not a contradiction.

Thanks Moody Publishers for letting me review this book.

Around The Web-April 19, 2019

Kevin DeYoung's latest book, Grace: Defined and Defended, and other books celebrating the 400th anniversary the Canons of Dort are on sale

Salvation by Propitiation by Kevin DeYoung

Dealing with Lust by Joseph A Pipa, Jr

4 Reasons to Rejoice in the Doctrine of Election by Josh Buice

Why Christians Oppose Abortion: Theological and Sociological Reasons by Steve Bezner

Ask Pastor John: Where Was the Holy Spirit on Good Friday?

Homosexual Activism and the SBC by Tom Ascol

For Whom Did Christ Die? by Ryan McGraw

Regeneration Lies At Salvation

Regeneration is a subject that lies at the very basis of salvation, and we should be very diligent to make sure that we really are “born again,” for there are many who imagine they are, who are not. Be assured that to be called a Christian is not the same nature as being a Christian, and that being born in a Christian country and being recognized as professing the Christian religion is of no significance at all unless there be something more added to it. Being “born again” is a matter so mysterious that human words cannot describe it. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nevertheless, it is a change that is known and felt known by works of holiness and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural.

It is not an operation that a man performs for himself: A new principle is infused that works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects his whole life. It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature, so that I am not the man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it alive: Man can do the one—God alone can do the other. If you have, then, been “born again,” your declaration will be, “O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, You are my spiritual Parent; if Your Spirit had not breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life, I would still be ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’ My heavenly life is wholly derived from You; to You I ascribe it. ‘My life is hidden with Christ in God.’ It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” May the Lord grant us assurance on this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be unsaved, unpardoned, without God, and without hope.

Adapted from Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Mark Dever on How The Old Testament Saints Were Saved

The One Verse on Divine Sovereignty and Free Will

Christians have believed for centuries that God has divinely chosen those who to be saved. This is has many people crying foul because it seems unfair and it teaches that God violates our free will. Christians have also taught that we can come to Christ by faith. This may seem confusing considering the Bible teaches that God choses the elect yet the elect must come to God by faith.

Is there a verse in the Bible that teaches God choses yet man must come to faith? Yes. None of the Apostles said. It was Jesus Himself:

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out (John 6:37).

We see the divine sovereignty of God in the first part of the verse, "All that the Father gives me will come to me.." Jesus said later on in John 6 that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). God has given Christ the elect, the ones He has chosen to be saved. Those who are chose will come, however, this is where the free will comes in, "...whoever comes to me I will never cast out." Whoever comes to Christ will never be looked away. Yes, God draws us, but we still must choose Him.

We are not robots. We are made in the image of God who has given us His Son for the redemption of our sin. Yes, God does choose those who are saved, yet we still have the free will not to choose Him.

The good news is those who embrace the call of God to salvation are accepted by the Son of God. A study note from the Reformation Study Bible says:

God leads to faith all whom He plans to redeem. The redemption of the elect is certain. The Son promises acceptance to anyone who truly believes.

John Piper on How We Can Tell If We Are Truly Saved

Four Reasons We Were Chosen In Christ

1) Not chosen out of merit.

Negatively, and as we have already begun to see in Acts 13:48 (NKJV), we were not chosen because of any worthiness in us, either predicted or actual. The Lord has never dealt with people in this way. For example, in Deuteronomy 7:7 (NKJV), Moses assures Israel that “the Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples.” Israel at that time might have been tempted to look on the multitudes of the tribes and say, “Ah, this is why God chose us. Look at how many of us there are! Truly we are just the kind of people whom God might have chosen for his glory!” We still face precisely the same kind of temptations—we imagine that our numbers, graces, abilities, faith, wealth, charisma, influence, or whatever else it might be, actually lies behind God’s gift to us. In that scenario, salvation becomes a reward for what we already were or had become.

Scripturally, the truth is precisely the reverse.

Indeed, we have to face the fact that “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27 NKJV). In other words, if anything, God chose us not because of our exemplary giftedness or graciousness but because of our exemplary wretchedness and helplessness! Paul emphasizes that the cause of God’s favorable dealings with us is not found in the working or the willing or the running (effort) of man:

(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”…. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. (Romans 9:11–13, NKJV; Romans 9:16 NKJV)

Paul presses this home to the Corinthians when asking about the source of all the saving kindnesses that they enjoy: “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7 NKJV).

2) Chosen out of mercy.

Positively, in answering the same question, we see that this choice is rooted in the free mercy and sovereign love of Almighty God. It is an act of grace, utterly apart from or even in the face of the things that sinful mankind deserves, a gift freely given. So, while denying that God chose Israel because of any greatness in them, Moses traces the choice back to the heart of God:

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 7:7–8 NKJV)

Writing to the Ephesian church, Paul sets their own native deadness against the new reality of life in Christ—that God, “even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ”—and then traces it to its divine source: “by grace you have been saved.” Having so stated it in Ephesians 2:5 (NKJV), he repeats it again a few lines later for good measure: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 NKJV). the weak” to glorify himself.”]

Grace is God’s free favor. It comes to the undeserving from outside them and apart from anything creditable in them (on the assumption that, apart from these mercies, any such thing could be discovered). It is, in this regard, entirely unconditional: it does not hinge or hang upon anything worthy that ever was, is, or will be in those who receive it.

To What End Are We Chosen?
But having asked on what basis God’s elect are chosen, we must also ask to what end were we chosen? There are two elements to the answer.

3) Chosen for holiness.

The first element is that we were chosen with a view to the holiness of men so saved. The election of God is so that we might stand before him in righteousness. It is true that we were saved to enjoy all the benefits of all the active and passive obedience of Christ—his provision of a perfect righteousness that is pleasing to God, and his suffering of all the punishment our sins deserve, so removing the curse from us. But it is also true that we were chosen and saved to be conformed to his image:

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (Romans 8:28–30 NKJV)

Paul says as much to the Ephesians, emphasizing that God the Father “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4 NKJV) and that “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV). Good works do not feed into our election as an operating cause, but they do flow from it as an invariable consequence. Our Lord says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:16 NKJV).

4) Chosen for God’s glory.

The second element of the answer to the question about the purpose of this election is the glory of God. Again, Paul hammers it home in the hymn of praise into which he invites the Ephesian church. All that the Lord does is “to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). God is working things according to the counsel of his will in order “that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12). The grace of God is displayed to secure the praise of the glory of his grace. The ultimate intent of salvation is that God will be magnified by all those who enjoy and observe his lovingkindnesses, for Christians belong to “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9 NKJV).

Adapted from Four Reasons We Are Chosen in Christ by Jeremy Walker

Around The Web-October 12, 2018

Pastors' Talk: On Teaching the Church about the Church

Peter, Fear of Man, and Lying by Jon English Lee

Ask Pastor John: Does Depression Disqualify a Pastor?

What Ever Happened to Civil Debate? by James Williams

Rachel Held Evans: Slaying Giants or Taming the Bible? by Alisha Childers

When You Sense That “Nudge” by Michael Coughlin

Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? (Hebrews 6) by Dennis E Johnson

For you viewing pleasure, Donall and Conall Meet the JWs