Law demands righteousness from men; Grace\nbrings righteousness to men. Law sentences a living man to death; Grace\nbrings a dead man to life. Law speaks of what men must do for God; Grace\ntells of what Christ has done for men. Law gives a knowledge of sin;\nGrace puts away sin. Law brings God out to men; Grace brings men into\nGod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
–S. Richardson <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Gospel of God or\nAnother Gospel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We read numerous times\nin Scripture of \u201cThe Gospel of God.\u201d<\/em> Is my gospel the Gospel\nof God? The Gospel of God is the Gospel that lines up with the Old Testament\nScriptures, gives God all the glory in salvation, gives the pre-eminence to\nJesus Christ in all things, does not violate or contradict any of the\nattributes of God, actually honours the law\u2019s demand for perfect obedience and\npunishment for disobedience, meets the sinner where he is\u2026dead in sins\u2026and\ngives him life, saves the very chief of sinners, provides all God requires,\nkeeps a man saved, enables a man to face death and judgment with perfect peace,\nconforms a sinner to perfect likeness to Christ, and enables him to rest in\nChrist\u2019s finished work. If it fails to do any of those things, it is not the\nGospel of God, but another gospel that will not save! ~Todd Nibert<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Go, and sin no more.” John 8:11.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Octavius Winslow<\/p>\n\n\n\n See how Christ manifests His abhorrence of the sin, while He\nthrows His shield of mercy around the sinner. The Lord does not justify the\nsinner’s transgression, though He justifies the sinner’s person. In the great\nmatter of salvation, justification and sanctification, pardon and holiness, are\nessentially and inseparably united. When the Lord Jesus dismisses a sinner with\na sense of acquittal in his conscience, it is ever accompanied with that most\naffecting of all exhortations, “Sin no more.” And as he passes out\nfrom the presence of Jesus, pardoned, justified, saved, the Savior’s tender,\nsoul-subduing words from that moment seem to vibrate upon his ear every step of\nhis onward way. “Go, admire, and publish abroad the glory of that grace\nthat has done such great things for you. Go, and spread His fame, and with your\nlatest breath dwell upon His name, who, when sin and Satan and conscience\naccused you, and would have consigned you to eternal woe- then appeared your\nFriend, your Advocate, and your Savior. Go, and when tempted to wound afresh\nthe bosom that sheltered you, remember Me; from Gethsemane, from Calvary, and\nfrom the hallowed spot where I spoke to you, I condemn you not. Go, and sin no\nmore.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It is God who justifieth.” Romans 8:33.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Octavius Winslow<\/p>\n\n\n\n Behold the eternal security of the weakest believer in Jesus.\nThe act of justification, once passed under the great seal of the resurrection\nof Christ, God can never revoke without denying Himself. Here is our safety.\nHere is the ground of our dauntless challenge, “Who shall lay anything to\nthe charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” What can I need more?\nWhat more can I ask? If God, the God of spotless purity, the God of inflexible\nrighteousness, justifies me, “who is he that condemns? ” Sin may condemn,\nbut it is God that justifies! The law may alarm, but it is God that justifies!\nSatan may accuse, but it is God that justifies! Death may terrify, but it is\nGod that justifies! “If GOD is for us, who can be against us?” Who\nwill dare condemn the soul whom He justifies? How gloriously will this truth\nshine forth in the great day of judgment! Every accuser will then be dumb.\nEvery tongue will then be silent. Nothing shall be laid to the charge of God’s\nelect. GOD Himself shall pronounce them fully, and forever justified: “And\nthose He justifies, He also glorifies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n GENTLENESS IN REBUKE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ\nJesus.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than\nthese?”\u2014John 21:15<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n John MacDuff<\/p>\n\n\n\n No word here of the erring disciple’s past faithlessness\u2014his\nguilty cowardice\u2014unmentioned;<\/em>\u2014his base denial\u2014his oaths and curses, and\ntreacherous desertion\u2014all unmentioned! <\/em>The memory of a\nthreefold denial is suggested, <\/em>and no more, by the threefold\nquestion of unutterable tenderness, “Simon son of John, do you truly love\nme?”\u2014When Jesus finds His disciples sleeping at the gate of Gethsemane, He\nrebukes them; but how is the rebuke disarmed of its poignancy by the merciful\napology which is added\u2014”The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is\nweak!” How different from their <\/em>unkind insinuation\nregarding Him,<\/em> when, in the vessel or Tiberias, “He was\nasleep”\u2014”Master, don’t you care that we perish!”\u2014The woman of\nSamaria is full of earthliness, carnality, sectarianism, guilt. Yet how gently\nthe Savior speaks to her\u2014how forbearingly, yet faithfully, He directs the arrow\nof conviction to that seared and hardened conscience, until He lays it bleeding\nat His feet! Truly, “He will not break the bruised reed\u2014He will not quench\nthe smoking flax.” By “the goodness <\/em>of God,” He\nwould lead to repentance. When others are speaking of merciless violence, He\ncan dismiss the most guilty of profligates with the words “Neither do I\ncondemn you; go, and sin no more.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n How many have an unholy pleasure in finding a brother in the\nwrong\u2014blazing abroad his failings; administering rebuke, not in gentle\nforbearance and kindly admonition, but with harsh and impatient severity! How\nbeautifully did Jesus unite intense sensibility to sin, along with tenderest\ncompassion for the sinner, showing in this that “He knows our frame!”\nMany a sinner needs gentleness in chastisement. The reverse would crush a\nsensitive spirit, or drive it to despair. Jesus tenderly “considers”\nthe case of those He disciplines, “tempering the wind to the shorn\nlamb.” In the picture of the good shepherd bearing home the wandering\nsheep, He illustrated by parable what He had often and again taught by His own\nexample. No word of needless harshness or upbraiding uttered to the erring\nwanderer! Ingratitude is too deeply felt to need rebuke. In silent love,\n“He lays it on His shoulders rejoicing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reader! seek to mingle gentleness in all your rebukes; bear with\nthe infirmities of others; make allowance for constitutional frailties; never\nsay harsh things, if kind things will do as well; do not unnecessarily lacerate\nwith recalling former delinquencies. In reproving another, let us rather feel\nhow much we need reproof ourselves. “Consider yourself,” is a\nsearching Scripture motto for dealing with an erring brother. Remember your\nLord’s method of silencing fierce accusation\u2014”Let him that is without sin\ncast the first stone.” Moreover, anger and severity are not the successful\nmeans of reclaiming the backslider, or of melting the obdurate. Like the smooth <\/em>stones\nwith which David smote Goliath, gentle <\/em>rebukes are generally\nthe most powerful. The old fable of the traveler and his cloak has a moral here\nas in other things. The genial sunshine will effect its removal sooner than the\nrough tempest. It was said of Leighton, that “he rebuked faults so mildly,\nthat they were never repeated, not because the admonished were afraid, but\nashamed to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh lovely posture!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n (adapted from Octavius Winslow’s “Morning Thoughts”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n ” For if we would judge ourselves, we should Self condemnation averts God’s condemnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When a penitent sinner truly, humbly, graciously The penitent publican, who stood afar off, wrapped The proud, self righteous Pharisee, who marched When God sees a penitent sinner arraigning, judging, The Lord give unto us this secret spirit of self judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Such was Job’s<\/strong>, when in deep contrition he declared, Such was David’s<\/strong>, when he penitentially confessed, Such was Peter’s<\/strong>, when he vehemently exclaimed, Such was Isaiah’s<\/strong>, when he plaintively cried,\n“Woe is me, Such was the publican’s<\/strong>, when he humbly Oh lovely posture!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh sacred spirit of self abhorrence, of self condemnation!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Holy Spirit works it in the heart, and this stamps The judgment day of the self condemning soul is on And oh, how terrible will that judgment be!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n not be judged.” 1 Cor. 11:31<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nsits in judgment upon himself, the Lord will never
\nsit in judgment upon him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nin the spirit of self condemnation, retired from His
\npresence a justified man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nboldly to the altar and justified himself, went forth
\nfrom God’s presence a condemned man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\ncondemning, loathing himself, He exclaims, “I do not
\ncondemn you; go and sin no more.” He who judges
\nand condemns himself upon God’s footstool, shall be
\nacquitted and absolved from God’s throne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Against You, You only have I sinned, and done this
\nevil in Your sight.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nfor I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nprayed, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nit as so precious, so salutary, and so safe. The great
\nday of the Lord will unveil blessings passing all thought,
\nand glories passing all imagination, to the soul who
\nbeneath the cross lies prostrate, in the spirit of self
\ncondemnation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nthis side of eternity! While the judgment day of the
\nself justifying soul is on the other side of eternity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n