Monthly Archives: April 2010

Grace and justification

Righteousness,

If you have time, consider watching John Piper’s recent address at Together for the Gospel. The conference was on the “unadulterated Gospel,” and Piper particularly looked at imputed righteousness — is it what Jesus taught, or only Paul?

That might sound heady… but I appreciate how it is so impacting to practical living, to get the foundations of faith right.

I particularly was impacted by how Jesus does not justify the one who is thanking God for righteousness based in himself. This is not legalism, but a trust in your own righteousness, even righteousness that you trust God has given you. Wow. Piper does a wonderful job exposing Christ’s view of salvation and the proper view of our works.

It appears they are ok with embedding it, so it’s below… if I find out otherwise, I’ll replace it with a link… Be sure to persevere, as the first 10 minutes are pretty heady… but it is really worth listening to the whole thing (and it gets easier!).

T4G 2010 — Session 6 — John Piper from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.

Repentance revealing grace

Grace, Repentance, ,

I ran across this helpful quote today. It is on the topic of repentance.

“The difference between an unconverted and a converted man is not that the one has sins and the other has none; but that the one takes part with his cherished sins against a dreaded God and the other takes part with a reconciled God against his hated sins.” (William Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth, 1884, p.311)

I like Arnot’s pointing to repentance as the key between one born again and one not. I can hear him asking, “Whose side are you on?”

It reminds me of the close association of repentance and belief. Jesus commands us to do both in Mark 1:15 – “repent and believe in the gospel” – and yet often, as the well-known John 3:16, belief in the Son of God encompasses repentance: “whoever believes in him shall not perish…”

It seems that to believe in the gospel is to believe in your own horrible state and the depth of your offense to God… and to trust Him both for forgiveness and righteousness… as Arnot says, to “take part with a reconciled God against his hated sins.”

I also appreciate that this removes repentance as a work and puts it as a unity with faith. I’ve often heard it said that repentance is more than a “change of mind” but an “actual turning,” and as such, must be actually seen externally. A “turn” from old behavior, if you will.

Yet you and I still sin.

As Greg Gilbert explains in his little book What is the Gospel?, “Because we will continue to struggle with sin until we are glorified, we have to remember that genuine repentance is more fundamentally a matter of the heart’s attitude toward sin than it is a mere change of behavior” (p.81).

This is repentance that is a critical component of faith. A change of my heart to agree with God’s view of me; how wretched I am! How wondrous that I am cleansed, forgiven, declared righteous, and grown in faith and godliness!

May we never think that we can change our own ways before coming to God; nor that we can simply assent to the fact of Christ’s death and resurrection and consider that ‘belief.’

Grace really is amazing — even more so as I see the depths of my offense against God. Thank you, Lord, for opening my eyes, even a little bit, to it. And as I see it more, thank you for the depth of love which bore the price of such offence on the cross.