Dec 22
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Law demands righteousness from men; Grace brings righteousness to men. Law sentences a living man to death; Grace brings a dead man to life. Law speaks of what men must do for God; Grace tells of what Christ has done for men. Law gives a knowledge of sin; Grace puts away sin. Law brings God out to men; Grace brings men into God.
–S. Richardson
The Gospel of God or Another Gospel?
We read numerous times in Scripture of “The Gospel of God.” Is my gospel the Gospel of God? The Gospel of God is the Gospel that lines up with the Old Testament Scriptures, gives God all the glory in salvation, gives the pre-eminence to Jesus Christ in all things, does not violate or contradict any of the attributes of God, actually honours the law’s demand for perfect obedience and punishment for disobedience, meets the sinner where he is…dead in sins…and gives him life, saves the very chief of sinners, provides all God requires, keeps a man saved, enables a man to face death and judgment with perfect peace, conforms a sinner to perfect likeness to Christ, and enables him to rest in Christ’s finished work. If it fails to do any of those things, it is not the Gospel of God, but another gospel that will not save! ~Todd Nibert
“Go, and sin no more.” John 8:11.
Octavius Winslow
See how Christ manifests His abhorrence of the sin, while He throws His shield of mercy around the sinner. The Lord does not justify the sinner’s transgression, though He justifies the sinner’s person. In the great matter of salvation, justification and sanctification, pardon and holiness, are essentially and inseparably united. When the Lord Jesus dismisses a sinner with a sense of acquittal in his conscience, it is ever accompanied with that most affecting of all exhortations, “Sin no more.” And as he passes out from the presence of Jesus, pardoned, justified, saved, the Savior’s tender, soul-subduing words from that moment seem to vibrate upon his ear every step of his onward way. “Go, admire, and publish abroad the glory of that grace that has done such great things for you. Go, and spread His fame, and with your latest breath dwell upon His name, who, when sin and Satan and conscience accused you, and would have consigned you to eternal woe- then appeared your Friend, your Advocate, and your Savior. Go, and when tempted to wound afresh the bosom that sheltered you, remember Me; from Gethsemane, from Calvary, and from the hallowed spot where I spoke to you, I condemn you not. Go, and sin no more.”
“It is God who justifieth.” Romans 8:33.
Octavius Winslow
Behold the eternal security of the weakest believer in Jesus. The act of justification, once passed under the great seal of the resurrection of Christ, God can never revoke without denying Himself. Here is our safety. Here is the ground of our dauntless challenge, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” What can I need more? What more can I ask? If God, the God of spotless purity, the God of inflexible righteousness, justifies me, “who is he that condemns? ” Sin may condemn, but it is God that justifies! The law may alarm, but it is God that justifies! Satan may accuse, but it is God that justifies! Death may terrify, but it is God that justifies! “If GOD is for us, who can be against us?” Who will dare condemn the soul whom He justifies? How gloriously will this truth shine forth in the great day of judgment! Every accuser will then be dumb. Every tongue will then be silent. Nothing shall be laid to the charge of God’s elect. GOD Himself shall pronounce them fully, and forever justified: “And those He justifies, He also glorifies.”
GENTLENESS IN REBUKE
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
“Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?”—John 21:15
John MacDuff
No word here of the erring disciple’s past faithlessness—his guilty cowardice—unmentioned;—his base denial—his oaths and curses, and treacherous desertion—all unmentioned! The memory of a threefold denial is suggested, and no more, by the threefold question of unutterable tenderness, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?”—When Jesus finds His disciples sleeping at the gate of Gethsemane, He rebukes them; but how is the rebuke disarmed of its poignancy by the merciful apology which is added—”The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!” How different from their unkind insinuation regarding Him, when, in the vessel or Tiberias, “He was asleep”—”Master, don’t you care that we perish!”—The woman of Samaria is full of earthliness, carnality, sectarianism, guilt. Yet how gently the Savior speaks to her—how forbearingly, yet faithfully, He directs the arrow of conviction to that seared and hardened conscience, until He lays it bleeding at His feet! Truly, “He will not break the bruised reed—He will not quench the smoking flax.” By “the goodness of God,” He would lead to repentance. When others are speaking of merciless violence, He can dismiss the most guilty of profligates with the words “Neither do I condemn you; go, and sin no more.”
How many have an unholy pleasure in finding a brother in the wrong—blazing abroad his failings; administering rebuke, not in gentle forbearance and kindly admonition, but with harsh and impatient severity! How beautifully did Jesus unite intense sensibility to sin, along with tenderest compassion for the sinner, showing in this that “He knows our frame!” Many a sinner needs gentleness in chastisement. The reverse would crush a sensitive spirit, or drive it to despair. Jesus tenderly “considers” the case of those He disciplines, “tempering the wind to the shorn lamb.” In the picture of the good shepherd bearing home the wandering sheep, He illustrated by parable what He had often and again taught by His own example. No word of needless harshness or upbraiding uttered to the erring wanderer! Ingratitude is too deeply felt to need rebuke. In silent love, “He lays it on His shoulders rejoicing.”
Reader! seek to mingle gentleness in all your rebukes; bear with the infirmities of others; make allowance for constitutional frailties; never say harsh things, if kind things will do as well; do not unnecessarily lacerate with recalling former delinquencies. In reproving another, let us rather feel how much we need reproof ourselves. “Consider yourself,” is a searching Scripture motto for dealing with an erring brother. Remember your Lord’s method of silencing fierce accusation—”Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.” Moreover, anger and severity are not the successful means of reclaiming the backslider, or of melting the obdurate. Like the smooth stones with which David smote Goliath, gentle rebukes are generally the most powerful. The old fable of the traveler and his cloak has a moral here as in other things. The genial sunshine will effect its removal sooner than the rough tempest. It was said of Leighton, that “he rebuked faults so mildly, that they were never repeated, not because the admonished were afraid, but ashamed to do so.
Oh lovely posture!
(adapted from Octavius Winslow’s “Morning Thoughts”)
” For if we would judge ourselves, we should
not be judged.” 1 Cor. 11:31
Self condemnation averts God’s condemnation.
When a penitent sinner truly, humbly, graciously
sits in judgment upon himself, the Lord will never
sit in judgment upon him.
The penitent publican, who stood afar off, wrapped
in the spirit of self condemnation, retired from His
presence a justified man.
The proud, self righteous Pharisee, who marched
boldly to the altar and justified himself, went forth
from God’s presence a condemned man.
When God sees a penitent sinner arraigning, judging,
condemning, loathing himself, He exclaims, “I do not
condemn you; go and sin no more.” He who judges
and condemns himself upon God’s footstool, shall be
acquitted and absolved from God’s throne.
The Lord give unto us this secret spirit of self judgment.
Such was Job’s, when in deep contrition he declared,
“I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
Such was David’s, when he penitentially confessed,
“Against You, You only have I sinned, and done this
evil in Your sight.”
Such was Peter’s, when he vehemently exclaimed,
“Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Such was Isaiah’s, when he plaintively cried,
“Woe is me,
for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.”
Such was the publican’s, when he humbly
prayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
Oh lovely posture!
Oh sacred spirit of self abhorrence, of self condemnation!
The Holy Spirit works it in the heart, and this stamps
it as so precious, so salutary, and so safe. The great
day of the Lord will unveil blessings passing all thought,
and glories passing all imagination, to the soul who
beneath the cross lies prostrate, in the spirit of self
condemnation.
The judgment day of the self condemning soul is on
this side of eternity! While the judgment day of the
self justifying soul is on the other side of eternity!
And oh, how terrible will that judgment be!
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin” 2 Corinthians 5:21
John Newton
Behold the beloved Jesus, perfectly spotless and holy—yet made
an example of the severest justice.
Behold Him . . .
prostrate and agonizing in the garden;
enduring the vilest insults from wicked men;
torn with whips, and nails, and thorns;
suspended, naked, wounded, and bleeding upon the cross—forsaken
by God.
Sin was the cause of all His anguish. He stood in the place of
sinners, and therefore was not spared.
Not any, or all, the evils which the world has known—afford such
proof of the dreadful effects and detestable nature of sin, as the knowledge of
Christ crucified!
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Supernatural light (Joseph Philpot, “The Heir of Heaven Walking in Darkness, and the Heir of Hell Walking in Light“) “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Cor. 4:6 Until, then, this supernatural light of God enters into the soul, a man has no saving knowledge of Jehovah. He may . . . say his prayers, read his Bible, attend preaching, observe ordinances, bestow all his goods to feed the poor, or give his body to be burned; but he is as ignorant of God as the cattle that graze in the fields! He may call himself a Christian, and be thought such by others, talk much about Jesus Christ, hold a sound creed, maintain a consistent profession, pray at a prayer meeting with fluency and apparent feeling, stand up in a pulpit and contend earnestly for the doctrines of grace, excel hundreds of God’s children in zeal, knowledge and conversation. And yet, if this ray of supernatural light has never shone into his soul, he is only twofold more the child of hell than those who make no profession! The monster! Spurgeon, “THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOR” SIN is a madness, disqualifying the mind for sober judgment; a blindness, rendering the soul incapable of appreciating moral beauty; it is in fact such a perversion of all the faculties, that under its terrible influence men will ‘call evil good and good evil, and they put darkness for light and light for darkness, and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter’ (Isa. 5:20). To us in our fallen condition demons often appear more favorable than angels, we mistake the gates of hell for the door of bliss, and prefer the garnished lies of Satan to the eternal truths of the Most High. Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will, are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry. While holiness, peace, contentment, and humility, are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought. O sin, what have you done! or rather, what have you undone! You have not been content to rob humanity of its crown, to drive it from its happy kingdom, to mar its royal garments, and spoil its treasure; but you have done more than this! It was not enough to degrade and dishonor; you have even wounded your victim; you have blinded his eyes, sealed up his ears, intoxicated his judgment, and gagged his conscience; yes, the poison of your venom has poured death into the fountain! Your hostility has pierced the heart of mankind, and thereby you have filled his veins with corruption, and his bones with depravity. Yes, O monster, you have become a murderer, for you have made us dead in trespasses and sins! |
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The monster! Spurgeon, “THE SAINT AND HIS SAVIOR” SIN is a madness, disqualifying the mind for sober judgment; a blindness, rendering the soul incapable of appreciating moral beauty; it is in fact such a perversion of all the faculties, that under its terrible influence men will ‘call evil good and good evil, and they put darkness for light and light for darkness, and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter’ (Isa. 5:20). To us in our fallen condition demons often appear more favorable than angels, we mistake the gates of hell for the door of bliss, and prefer the garnished lies of Satan to the eternal truths of the Most High. Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will, are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry. While holiness, peace, contentment, and humility, are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought. O sin, what have you done! or rather, what have you undone! You have not been content to rob humanity of its crown, to drive it from its happy kingdom, to mar its royal garments, and spoil its treasure; but you have done more than this! It was not enough to degrade and dishonor; you have even wounded your victim; you have blinded his eyes, sealed up his ears, intoxicated his judgment, and gagged his conscience; yes, the poison of your venom has poured death into the fountain! Your hostility has pierced the heart of mankind, and thereby you have filled his veins with corruption, and his bones with depravity. Yes, O monster, you have become a murderer, for you have made us dead in trespasses and sins! |
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Separation from the
world’s religion? Spurgeon, “Light, Natural and Spiritual” #660. As soon as the Lord gives to any believer spiritual light, he begins to separate himself from the darkness. The world’s religion used to satisfy him. If there was a pretty looking building, and a good looking minister who could put his words together well, and garnish the altar finely, the child of darkness did not care what he heard; whether the gospel was preached or not. But so soon as he receives spiritual light, he cries, “All this is nothing to me, I need light and truth, and I cannot go to hear anything but the gospel.” He separates himself from the world’s religion, finds out where Christ is preached, and goes there. |