Monthly Archives: April 2009

A Few Words About Grace

Grace

I wonder sometimes how much wisdom we miss in the gathered wisdom of earnest believers in years past. We all know names like Calvin and Luther, but how many other Saints joyfully proclaimed the truth of the Gospel and are never read?

In that vein, I was reading a not-so-old-but-not-contemporary book on Romans by William R. Newell, published in 1938. It happened to be on my shelf, and several sections really caused me to pause and think… in a good way.

So I share a couple of sections with you, from Newell’s Romans Verse By Verse, pp. 246-247. May they also cause you to reflect on the wondrous grace that has been poured out on us in Christ!

 

“A FEW WORDS ABOUT GRACE”

[The first two sections were also good, but I’ve left them out for space constraints.]  

“III. The Proper Attitude of Man under Grace

1.  To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret.

2.  To refuse to make “resolutions” and “vows”; for that is to trust in the flesh.

3.  To expect to be blessed, though realizing more and more lack of worth.

4.  To testify of God’s goodness, at all times.

5.  To be certain of God’s future favor; yet to be ever more tender in conscience toward Him.

6.  To rely on God’s chastening hand as a mark of His kindness.

7.  A man under grace, if like Paul, has no burdens regarding himself; but many about others.

 

IV.  Things Which Gracious Souls Discover

1. To “hope to be better” is to fail to see yourself in Christ only.

2. To be disappointed with yourself, is to have believed in yourself.

3. To be discouraged is unbelief,-as to God’s purpose and plan of blessing for you.

4. To be proud, is to be blind! For we have no standing before God, in ourselves.

5. The lack of Divine blessing, therefore, comes from unbelief, and not from failure of devotion.

6. Real devotion to God arises, not from man’s will to show it; but from the discovery that blessing has been received from God while we were yet unworthy and undevoted.

7. To preach devotion first, and blessing second, is to reverse God’s order, and preach law, not grace. The Law made man’s blessing depend on devotion; Grace confers undeserved, unconditional blessing: our devotion may follow, but does not always do so,-in proper measure.”

Graceful Thoughts IV

In Christ, ,
The word of the cross illumines our lives
The word of the cross... is the power of God.

I’ve been thinking alot about the importance of the gospel recently. Particularly I’ve been thinking about how important continuing, increasing knowledge of Jesus Christ is to our ongoing life on earth.  In the midst of this thinking, my wife read me this quote from Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington, in The Great Exchange (p.129):

“Paul declares, ‘The word of the cross is… the power of God’ (1 Cor. 1:18). What a remarkable statement! God’s almighty, supernatural power is connected to a specific ‘word’ – the message of the cross – the preaching of the great facts of Christ’s atoning sacrifice as the provision of God’s love for guilty sinners. When this gospel of Christ’s great atonement is preached, God’s miraculous power to regenerate, restore, and renew sinners is displayed in those who are saved by it.

“This is the true gospel, the only gospel that unleashes the power of God by which those dead in sin are saved from the guilt, the consequences, and the enslaving power of their sin. Therefore, Paul was ‘not ashamed of the gospel’ because this message of the cross ‘is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek’ (Rom. 1:16). Substitute anything for the cross or add anything to the cross, whether good works or human philosophy, and the preaching is stripped of God’s power – for it is no longer God’s message. It ceases to be the gospel.”

 I liked the “word of the cross” being the power of God… may we never add to or take away what our Savior has paid for. Blessings!