There's always been a suspicion that grace is a little too comforting. That the news is too good, it's a little dangerous to tell people that it's all of God, all of grace. Unleashed in its full force such preaching would surely undermine all sense of moral earnestness. The fear of punishment and hope of rewards is the only thing that can really get us off the dime, even though on our deathbed we may be told that Christ is enough after all. A lot of Christians today can tell similar stories, when they became a Christian they were told that Christ died for their sins past, present, and future, and promised eternal life to all who believe. But then, after their conversion, they were gradually buried under a weight of conditions. If you follow these steps you can live the victorious Christian life. If you do this God will smile upon you. What, you're not living in victory? Perhaps you're not following the steps. Start over. Rededicate yourself, try harder. It's actually pretty easy, you know, especially with the help of the Holy Spirit. Eventually, having begun in the Spirit, they're trying to be perfected in the flesh, because that's the message they're getting, or at least thinking they're getting, in church.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
grace
Here's a great quote on grace by Michael Horton, that comes via gospel driven life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
"Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col.1:27). Read the whole verse carefully, fragment by fragment, to get the full import of its wonderful truth: "God was pleased to make known - what is the riches of the glory - of this mystery... which is, Christ in you." The riches of the glory, Christ in you!
"Know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?" (2 Cor. 13:5). That interrogation of the Apostle is not without point, "Know ye not as to your own selves" - know ye not that Christ is in you? Do you not know this wonderful thing?
"My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). "Till Christ be formed in you"; this is a step on.
"Whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). Marvellous words! No man would dare to say this; they are here by revelation of the Holy Spirit.
"Unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ... till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God... unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:7, 13; ARV). "The measure... of the fulness of Christ."
We want immediately to focus everything in and upon the Lord Jesus Christ for it is He who is in view. What we have before us is not teaching or truth; that is, to be possessed of more knowledge of truth; it is not service; but it is the Lord Himself.
The object of the Father from first to last is that the Son, the Lord Jesus, shall fill all things, and all things shall be filled with Christ. The value of everything in the eyes of God is according to the measure of the manifestation of Christ in it. It is from that standpoint God determines the importance of everything.
If we become focussed there, it will make a great difference, much will have to go because it is not manifesting the Lord Jesus. We must understand that the Father has set the Lord Jesus before His eyes, and the Father's eyes are full of only one object, that is the Beloved, His Son; and in the eyes of God the value of everything is determined by the measure in which His Son is manifested and glorified; that is His end and that is His object.
T Austin Sparks - The Measure of Christ
Comment: It is all about Jesus in whom we are found - dead and hidden with Christ in God.
Post a Comment