day no. 16,483: TULIP time!

TOTAL DEPRAVITY

Total depravity is not the belief that everything is as bad it could be, but that nothing is as good as it should be. 

Total depravity does not insist that there is no good in anything, but that there is a bit of bad in everything.

Isaiah 64:6

We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Christianity is not unique among world religions in insisting that sin exists, it is unique in insisting that even our very best is still sinful. Our righteousness is ridiculous. Our cleanest living is corrupted.

We should not be surprised to discover that our best efforts are merely filthy rags, but that our rags contain any good in them at all. The shock should not be in realizing that God sees our best as offensive, but in realizing that He looks for good even in our offenses.

Philippians 3:7-9

What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

All that to say, we should not be shocked to discover how much shit God puts up with, but how much good He is willing to find in so much shit.

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good... We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it." ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Only those who love and pursue the standard can see how far short of it they fall.

“A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is alright. This is common sense really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not well you are sleeping.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Christianity is a waking up to the fact of sin in general and a realizing of the need of salvation regardless of the individual resume.

UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION

The Pelagian assumption is dependent upon a zero sum game that begins with a tabula rasa (blank slate); but the Bible puts forward the idea of us being conceived as debtors and daily adding new debts to the ledger as we grow. In other words, Pelagianism is grounded on a neutral that does not exist. Nothing is neutral. Claiming neutrality is, in fact, a common military formation of one of the two sides party to the conflict. Neutrality, then, is a weapon; and only one side deploys it.

Doug Wilson recently pointed out that the Pelagian impulse is to cry, "inability limits obligation." In other words, if you can't do something, you can't be obligated to do it. It is akin to proposing that if you had no choice in the matter, you can't be held accountable for your choices. You can only be held accountable for things over which you had free choice, or so the story goes. You can't sentence someone or judge someone guilty for impulses over which he had no say is the high watermark of modern logic. The same high watermark those exhibited in the days of Noah.

Genesis 6:5

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The argument proceeds as follows,

"I want to do sinful things, but I didn't choose to want to do sinful things. I never remember making a conscious decision to be a sinner, I just wanted to sin and saw sin as attractive. It was always the case. I have no responsibility, therefore, for the way I feel. And if I cannot be held responsible for how I feel, then why should I be prohibited from acting upon my feelings? If the feelings can't be counted as wrong, then how can the actions that flow from those feelings be any less wrong?"

This sounds right in way... right? But only in a way and only because we're indoctrinated in worldly catechisms in which we have all been trained and led astray. We collectively, impulsively identify the unfairness in it and relate to the plea-bargainer's reply, of "How can I be fined for breaking regulations I had no ability to obey? How can I rightly be held accountable for feelings I didn't ask to feel?"

But this is where the divergence between Augustinian Christianity and Pelagian Christiahhhh....ehhhhh.....errrrrr....nity is most obvious.

Scripture reveals that we are all born in Adam. We have a genetic marker that compels us to follow his example and sin. We are sinful because we are sinners, not the other way around. We are not counted sinful because of our sins, we can count our sins so easily because we are sinners and so good at what we do that you can count on it.

We are commanded by God to die to ourselves. We are commanded to go against our impulses. We are not given vague impulses as excuses for disobeying clear commands. We know what we are to do and how we are commanded to feel about our feelings. You can appeal to thine own self staying true, but it will not hold up in God's court. He has gone on record as to what He requires and what He condemns. If you find yourself, by nature, feeling attracted to things He has declared abominations or feeling repulsed by things He has declared attractive, the problem lies in you and your obligation in response to that is to forsake your feelings and follow Christ.

Because we are all born into Adam, each one of us must die to ourselves on some points and go against our natural inclinations if we are to follow Jesus. No one follows Jesus and feels warm fuzzies about His commands without being regenerated from our old nature into a new nature provided by God.

God does not choose anyone because of something they did or for anything He foresaw that they would do. The conditions of our election are nowhere to be found in us. The condition is located in His loving kindness. His initiative is our confidence. Our initiative towards Him is merely our response to His initiative in us. We live, move, and have our being because He lives, moves, and is.

Romans 9:9-13

For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, "The elder shall serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

Paul goes out of his way to point out that the unborn sons had not yet done anything good or bad to deserve favor or discipline. It was at this point that God promised the blessing to the younger. This was not merely a statement of God's preference, but an example of His purposes in election.

A woman once reportedly said to Charles Spurgeon, “I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.”  Spurgeon replied, “That is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.”

The sticking point is often Esau, right? But that math should not be too hard to wrap your head around. The real head scratcher is God's mercy to Jacob. There is no math for something like that. It is unconditional and cannot be summarized. It is a product of the grace of God in making life not fair.

LIMITED ATONEMENT

"I would rather believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody, except the will of men be added to it." -- Charles Spurgeon

If someone has a sticking point when it comes to the so-called, "5 Points of Calvinism," it's almost always just the one particular point on which they are stuck... limited atonement.

Unless you have a universalist approach that assumes everyone is going to heaven when they die, you limit atonement somehow. The question is not IF you limit it, but HOW.

You must either limit its efficacy or its ubiquity. That is to say, you must either limit its power or its promiscuity. Which does it lack: surety or scope? Because it must lack one of these. It cannot be all powerful for everyone without being universal. So, is it all powerful for some or potentially powerful for all?

What Spurgeon is quoted as saying above assumes that the atonement is limited in quantity, not quality. That is, it saves to the utmost everyone that it saves. It does not kind of save everyone or definitively save everyone. It only works for those whom it goes to work. But by this definition of the atonement, it's scope is limited or reduced from everyone in the entire world, to those elected out of the world. Rest assured, all kinds of people will be elected: red and yellow, black and white, rich and poor, men and women, old and young, sick and healthy, etc... But not each and every one from each and every kind will be elected. In other words, no kind of person is exempt, but some of each kind will be.

Many find this discrimination distasteful and opt for a more broad-minded approach saying, "the atonement made it possible for each and every individual regardless of race, nation, tongue, gender, etc... to be saved." In this arrangement, the scope is broadened to include everyone ubiquitously, however, the efficacy has now been limited. In this understanding, everyone CAN make it to heaven, but no one assuredly WILL. In this case, at least in theory, everyone could reject salvation and the atonement and heaven could end up vacant. God would still be good, but Christ would have died for no one in particular. Granted, the benefit, in this formation, would be that everyone could do it, but the fact would remain that no one assuredly would and those who have previously done it should fret that perhaps they didn't do it quite enough or must do it again later just to be safe.

Limiting atonement's scope is the only measure of providing any security to anyone's salvation. While it does mean that some will most assuredly not be saved, it also promises that some most assuredly will. 

John Owen put it this way...

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:

1. All the sins of all men.

2. All the sins of some men.

3. Some of the sins of some men.

In which case it may be said: 

That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.

That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.

But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, Because of unbelief. I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!

In other words, we are left with 4 options, Christ died for:

All of the sins of all men

All of the sins of some men

Some of the sins of all men

Some of the sins of some men

If Jesus died for all of the sins of all men, everyone is going to be saved, but Jesus Himself said some will go to hell (goats, bad fish, weeds, etc...) So, universalism is heresy.

If Jesus died for some of the sins of all men, all men still have some sins for which they must  themselves atone and all would be damned.

If Jesus died for some of the sins of some men, all men still have some sins for which they must atone and some still have all their sins left to atone for in which case, all are damned.

But if Jesus died for all of the sins of some men, then some men will actually be saved — not because of works, lest any of them should boast, but by grace through faith, which is itself a gift flowing from the finished work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

IRRESISTIBLE GRACE

Matthew 22:14

For many are called, but few are chosen.

All who are called come and all who stay are chosen. Some come and go. Some come incorrectly. Some come for something else. Those who are called, come correctly according to the summons. They come by grace through faith in Christ alone and live by faith according to His rule and reign.

No one who is drawn up by God hopes for holes in the bucket. None come to Him eyeballing the exits. No one is dragged to Heaven against his will. He is converted against his will precisely because his will is the thing that needs converting. Once converted and regenerated, his will does not long for its former life, it longs for the next one. This does not mean that it cannot be tempted by old longings, but that it cannot ignore the new ones. It cannot shake the desire for sanctity, nor does it want to. The will's wants have all been reorganized while some sinful ones may have been abandoned entirely and the ones that remain have been defrocked from their previous priestly positions. They no longer direct the worship service of the soul. As affections, they have either been vanquished or court marshaled. Inordinate affections have all been rounded up and reordered according to the commands of Christ. He keeps our cares corralled according to their kind and to their proper proportion.

God does not fail. He does not have unfulfilled desires with respect to His will of decree. In that regard, what He says goes and what He calls comes. His will of desire is communicated to us through the Law and the Gospel. This can be resisted or ignored. We can resist or grieve the Spirit in this respect, but not with respect to our spirits. We are not sovereign over our souls. We do not possess the ability to lock God out. There is not a PIN He does not know or a lock for which He doesn't possess the key. He cannot be kept at a distance by a restraining order. He provides both the inspiration to ask and the answer. There is not a move toward Him which did not originate in His moving the mover to move. 

The kindness of God is His Kingness. He is good and in charge and good at being in charge. He demands what is divine and inspires in His elect that which delivers them from death. He is no one's Plan B. He cannot be had as an afterthought. He does not accept seconds. He is not forced to receive any He does not want and there is no one who wants Him who won't be received. He provides the "want to" and the "will do" because the "all done" has been accomplished in Christ.

John 19:30

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished:" and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (emphasis mine)

PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' (Mt 4:17), He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." -- Martin Luther, 95 Theses, #1

The saints persevere primarily in repentance. They never cease turning to Christ. They are not sinless, but they do sin less. But in their sinning, the sin of unrepentance is absent. A saint is not one who never sins again, but one who repents again and again. It's not that they never fail, but that they never fail to ask for forgiveness. That is the handiwork of Christ in keeping His saints. They endure difficulty for the sake of Christ and endure humility in constantly confessing their ongoing need for His intervention and intercession.

The word commonly translated, "persevere," in the New Testament is hypomonḗ which is a compound word made up from hypó, "under" and ménō, "remain, endure." In other words, persevering is a matter of "remaining under." This can apply to remaining under difficulties for as long as they might last, in which case we say the man persevered, or to remaining under submission to God regardless of the circumstances. Whatever stands around you are your circumstances (circum "around" and stances "standing"). Perseverance is standing with God regardless of whoever stands against you or whatever stands around you. Whatever stands up, you don't stand down. You possess steadfastness and endurance because in Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit to will and work in you, you are like Him who endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him.

Hebrews 12:2-3

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Jesus remained under (hypomone) the cross. He remained under the mockery of sinners. He did get out from under His cross. He did not abandon His post to get back at sinners. He endured. He persevered and by His grace and through His Spirit, we, like Him, remain under whatever stands around us so that we might stand confident in Christ before His Father.

Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

We stand in Christ against sin. We stay put where He has placed us. We endure the conditions He requires and in the manner and by the means He has commanded.

Hebrews 4:16

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

We come at all because He called us. We come humbly because of who we were when He called. We come boldly because of Who it is that called us. We come joyfully because of Who we go to. We come with confidence because of Whose we are. We come and we stay because of Christ sat down.

John 18:9

Of them which thou gavest Me have I lost none.

We cannot be lost because God cannot lose in any sense of that word.

day no. 16,362: God does not exist to give our lives meaning

"God is not only the chief character of the Old Testament; God is properly the only character in the Old Testament. Compared with His clearness of purpose, all the other wills are heavy and automatic, like those of animals; compared with His actuality, all the sons of flesh are shadows." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

In one respect, the world and everyone in it is God's chessboard. The pieces cannot be understood to be playing the game, at least, not in the same way that God is. Whatever He is doing is categorically, at minimum, very different from what they are doing when they run along their assigned squares. The rook is free to run back and forth or side to side, but he is not free to run or strike diagonally. Compared to God all things are pawns. This isn't to say that all things are, in fact, merely pawns, but to say that the distance between what God is doing and what we are doing is such that to even call us pawns is to praise us more than we merit. 

The triangle is not free to acquire a fourth line without surrendering the freedom to be a triangle. The sea horse cannot become a rocking horse without becoming wooden. 

"The Old Testament hero is no more supposed to be of the same nature as God than a saw or a hammer is supposed to be of the same shape as the carpenter. This is the main key and characteristic of Hebrew scriptures as a whole. There are, indeed, in those scriptures innumerable instances of the sort of rugged humor, keen emotion, and powerful individuality which is never wanting in great primitive prose and poetry. Nevertheless the main characteristic remains: the sense not merely that God is stronger than man, not merely that God is more secret than man, but that He means more, that He knows better what He is doing, that compared with Him we have something of the vagueness, the unreason, and the vagrancy of the beasts that perish." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

God is better at using men than they are at comprehending Him. He is a better at using us as a pen than we are at understanding what He is writing with us. God does not fill human life with meaning apart from Himself. He is all meaning and the means to make it. That is to say, God does not exist to give our lives meaning; we exist because He is full of meaning and felt like sharing.

day no. 16,354: when we can do nothing, Jesus does everything

Mark 10:27

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

The only thing anyone needs to be saved is the one thing most of them refuse to have... nothing.

Everyone who thinks they’re someone thinks too much of themselves. They have too much. They imagine salvation is a high jump when it is actually a limbo — not a matter of how high can you fly, but how low can you go? 

1 Corinthians 1:28-29

God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Those on the ground looking up at Babel in the distance were better off than those on its roof looking down their noses. That proud tower came down and was reduced to nothing.

James 4:6

God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Everyone gets something. The proud get push back and the humble get help.

“When we can do nothing Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

day no. 16,307: father Abraham had many sons

Romans 9:6-8

But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Father Abraham had many sons, but only one son of promise. Just because you can claim Abraham as an ancestor does not mean you can claim faith as your inheritance. Ishmael had a greater chronological claim to Abraham than David, but David had a greater theological claim to Abraham than Ishmael. The sons of faith and promise are the true sons of Abraham and the true Israel. Not all those who have Israel in their DNA are children of the inheritance. Many who have not a drop of Abrahamic blood in their veins by birth have Abrahamic blood applied to them by rebirth. Only those who are born again are truly born of Abraham. No one is born into Abraham for salvation by genetics, but all who are born again by faith into him are saved.

John 1:12-13

As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

day no. 16.268: salvation is Trinitarian

"Each of the three Persons in the blessed Trinity is concerned with our salvation: with the Father it is predestination; with the Son propitiation; with the Spirit regeneration. The Father chose us; the Son died for us; the Spirit quickens us. The Father was concerned about us; the Son shed His blood for us, the Spirit performs His work within us. What the One did was eternal, what the Other did was external, what the Spirit does is internal.” — Arthur W. Pink, The Sovereignty of God

Salvation is Trinitarian.

While you do not have to know that in order to be saved by it, you cannot be shown that in the Scriptures, hear it, reject it, and still be saved by it.

You don’t have to understand the Trinity in order to be saved. If that were the case, who could be saved? But you cannot reject the Trinity without rejecting salvation. There’s a difference between what you must know and believe on the front end and what you must not reject as you go along.

One could believe the Gospel and be regenerated without ever having heard of the Holy Spirit per se, but could not believe the Gospel and reject the Spirit after hearing about it. Discovering the Trinity is not to be equated with being saved, but no one who is saved discovers the Trinity and then denigrates it.

day no. 15,657: the joy of the elect

Matthew 16:13-17
When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” And they said, “Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” He saith unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?” And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered and said unto him, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

"Thou art a happy man, that thou art not ignorant of this, that I am Christ, the Son of the Living God. Thou art distinguishingly happy. Others are blinded, and have dark and deluded apprehensions, as you have now given an account, some thinking that I am Elias, and some that I am Jeremais, and some one thing, and some another; but none of them thinking right, all of them misled. Happy art thou, that art so distinguished as to know the truth in this matter." -- Jonathan Edwards, Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine from Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards edited by H. Norman Gardiner

There is knowledge that can only be given by God. There are things that cannot be known in any other way than if God should instruct. God has given man much to know and much that can be communicated from one to the next; but knowledge of this sort, that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of the Living God, can only be revealed to a soul below by God above. Flesh and blood cannot decipher this. True happiness is in knowing what only God can teach and believing in what only God could reveal and receiving what only God could give, Jesus Christ.

"There is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious, and having a sense of the loveliness and beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment that honey is sweet, and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former, that knows not how honey tastes; but a man can't have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind." -- Jonathan Edwards, Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine from Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards edited by H. Norman Gardiner

day no. 15,493: called to be, called to become

In reading Clement's second letter, I came across this beautifully expressed sentiment.

2 Clement 1:8
For He hath called us when as yet we were not,
and hath willed us to be when we were nothing.

While we were still dead, He made us alive. Though we had done nothing to attract any positive attention, He positively beckoned us to come near. Our salvation is as our creation. We did not ask to be here. We did not plead to be composed. We did not beg to be born. And yet, here we are. By the grace of God, we are here. And our rebirth is like that. We were not searching for Him or seeking Him, but by His grace called and is continues to call us to seek Him.

day no. 15,427: election year

2 Peter 3:8-9
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

If the world continues, it is because there are elect who need to be saved and elect that are yet to be born. God endures the sin of men for the sake of the elect, those He is currently calling and those whom He has yet to bring forth. Any who are saved must be born of God. Some of the walking dead are yet to be reborn in their lifetime and some who are to be reborn have not been born the first time yet.

All that to say, the world must go on until God redeems the very last one who will make up the sum total of those He has elected before the foundation of the world to inherit to whole shabang. 

God is not slow, He is meticulous. He isn't impotent, He's patient. He isn't asleep at the wheel, He is waking sleepers from their slumber.

day no. 15,024: the sticking point

"I would rather believe a limited atonement that is efficacious for all men for whom it was intended, than a universal atonement that is not efficacious for anybody, except the will of men be added to it." - Charles Spurgeon

If someone has a sticking point when it comes to the so-called, "5 Points of Calvinism," it's almost always, without exception just one particular point on which they are "stuck,"
...limited atonement.

Unless you have a universalist approach to Scripture that assumes everyone is going to heaven when they die, you limit atonement. The question is not IF you limit it, but HOW.

You either must limit is efficacy or its ubiquity. You must say its power is limited or that its promiscuity is. Which does it lack? surety or scope? Because it must lack at least one.

What Spurgeon is quoted as saying above assumes that the atonement is limited in quantity, not quality. It saves to the utmost everyone that it saves. It works for those whom it goes to work. But by this definition of the atonement, it's scope is limited or reduced from everyone in the entire world, to those elected out of the world. All kinds of people will be elected: poor, rich, black, white, men, women, old, young, sick, healthy, etc... But not each and every one from each and every kind is elected.

Many find this distasteful and opt for a more broad scope saying, "the atonement made it possible for each and every individual regardless of race, nation, tongue, gender, etc... to be saved." In this arrangement, the scope is broadened to include everyone ubiquitously, however, the efficacy is now limited. In this understanding, everyone CAN make it to heaven, but no one assuredly will. In this case, at least in theory, everyone could reject salvation and the atonement and heaven could be vacant. Granted, the benefit would be that everyone could do it, but the fact remains that no one will assuredly do it and those who have been previously done it should fret that perhaps they didn't do it enough or must do it again later.

Limiting atonement's scope is the only measure of providing any security to anyone's salvation. While it does mean that some will most assuredly not be saved, it means that some most assuredly will. 

John Owen put it this way...

The Father imposed His wrath due unto, and the Son underwent punishment for, either:
1. All the sins of all men.
2. All the sins of some men.
3. Some of the sins of some men.

In which case it may be said: 
a. That if the last be true, all men have some sins to answer for, and so none are saved.
b. That if the second be true, then Christ, in their stead suffered for all the sins of all the elect in the whole world, and this is the truth.
c. But if the first be the case, why are not all men free from the punishment due unto their sins?

You answer, Because of unbelief. I ask, Is this unbelief a sin, or is it not? If it be, then Christ suffered the punishment due unto it, or He did not. If He did, why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which He died? If He did not, He did not die for all their sins!

In other words, we are left with 4 options, Christ died for:

All of the sins of all men
All of the sins of some men
Some of the sins of all men
Some of the sins of some men

If Jesus died for all of the sins of all men, everyone is going to be saved.

If Jesus died for some of the sins of all men, all men still have sins for which they must  themselves atone.

If Jesus died for some of the sins of some men, all men still have some sins of which they must atone for themselves and some still have all their sins left to atone for.

But if Jesus died for all of the sins of some men, then some men will actually be saved, not because of works, lest any of them should boast, but by grace through faith, which is itself a gift flowing from the finished work of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

day no. 14,955: picked, pricked and piqued

Deuteronomy 10:14-17
Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.

God is not partial. He doesn't use one standard and measurement for some people and another for other people. He did not pick Israel because they were given an easier entrance exam. By that standard and measurement, no one passed the test. No one met the minimum qualifications for being chosen by God. God did not troubleshoot His own system by taking a bribe or impartially applying His standards and measures in order to justify His selection of Israel. No, on the basis of works and wages, no one would be chosen. So God, by grace and mercy, picked a people. No one can say they deserved it and no one can make a case that they too ought to be chosen or should have rather been chosen in the stead of Israel. 

That being the case, how grateful and loyal should His chosen people be? The God who owns everything and everyone, in His mercy, set His grace on you. Do not kick back when He then commands you. Do not grow proud because of your new position. God set His heart upon you. Set your heart in reciprocity upon Him. He condescended to set His heart on you. He owed you nothing. You must now ascend and lift your heart to God because you owe Him everything.

day no. 14,954: because of your righteousness

Deuteronomy 9:4-7
Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 “Know, therefore, that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the Lord your God to wrath in the wilderness.


God doesn't give out A's to those who managed to avoid getting any of the answers wrong. He doesn't provide sight to those who are so good at seeing. He doesn't give new hearts to old ones which were working just fine.

It is NOT because of our righteousness that He saved us, but because of His goodness.

If it was earned as a result of our righteousness, we wouldn't need Him to provide us with anything... we would have earned it and could demand it as our wages.

Titus 3:3-5
For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy

If our old hearts could believe and be saved, why would we need new ones? If our old eyes could see well enough, why would we need new vision? If our old lives were exemplary, why would they need saving?

day no. 13,412: the weight of waiting

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.

The Lord waits.

He wants to be gracious to you and to me and if He acted before He waited, He would have to destroy us all.

But He exalts Himself in His mercy to us.

He is a God of justice, yet His desire is to be gracious and merciful, so He waits.

He waits so that we might respond to His mercy and in turn, wait for Him.

day no. 13,153: the never-forgetting God

Isaiah 44:21-22

21 Remember these things, O Jacob,and Israel, for you are my servant;I formed you; you are my servant;O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloudand your sins like mist;return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Remember... you will not be forgotten by Me.

Remember.

You will not be forgotten.

Your sins?

Forgotten.

You.

Never forgotten.
Redeemed.

Remember this.

day no. 13,118: a stereotypical love/hate relationship‏

Romans 9:13

As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

Where was that written again?

Read below.

Malachi 1:2-3

² “I have loved you,” says the Lord.

But you ask: “How have You loved us?”

“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” This is the Lord’s declaration. “Even so, I loved Jacob, ³ but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a wasteland, and gave his inheritance to the desert jackals.”

Whoa.

What’s the deal with choosing Jacob over Esau?

Ever asked that question?

Once upon a time, a woman asked Charles Spurgeon the same thing:

“A woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, ‘I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.’ ‘That,’ Spurgeon replied, ‘is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.’”

Well, there you go.

‘nuff said.

We tend to focus on the unfairness of being passed over by God and forget about the unfairness of being pursued by God.

day no. 13,101: what are people hearing you talk about?

Romans 10:17

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

You can’t control who believes, but you can control what you say. 

If you don’t tell anyone about Jesus, no one will hear.

If no one knows, they won’t believe. 

That’s easy enough math: 0 + 0 = 0

If you open your mouth and tell people what God has done and why He’s done it, some may just believe and be saved.

day no. 13,071 continued... the record of a One hit wonder

Isaiah 4:3

And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem

See other references to the book of life and the enrolling, enlistment, recording of those in it HERE.

Those enrolled get their name on the list by grace through faith in Jesus alone.

The velvet rope remains closed unless your name is on the list.

It's not a matter of you knowing the Owner of the club, it's a matter of the Owner of the club knowing you and putting your name on His list.

Everyone trying to get into the club knows the Owner.

Only those whom the Owner knows get in, however.

day no. 12,749: a tale of two daughter‏s: the wall and the door

Song of Solomon 8:8-10

Others

 

⁸We have a little sister,
and she has no breasts.
What shall we do for our sister
on the day when she is spoken for?

⁹ If she is a wall,
we will build on her a battlement of silver,
but if she is a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar.

She

 

¹⁰I was a wall,
and my breasts were like towers;
then I was in his eyes
as one who finds peace.

 

I pray with my daughters, Penelope and Laurelai, every night that they might be a wall and NOT a door.

 

A young woman who is a wall is a gift to her parents, her siblings and her future husband.

 

That said, I would rather have a repentant door than a proud wall if my prayers for a humble wall are not answered by God.

 

God, by Your grace, save my daughters from insecurity, sexual immorality, promiscuity, crude flirting, facebook hook-ups, and the like. But if it is that they are ever in any of these, may You save them out of them to love and worship You as their Rescuer. Amen.

 

God rescues His elect from sin.

He restrains otherwise wandering hearts by His Spirit.

He forgives hearts that have wandered by His grace in Christ.

 

May Penelope and Laurelai be elected for eternal life by grace through faith to God, the Father through God, the Son in God, the Spirit. Amen (again).

decimating religion‏

Bloodied and burdened with fear, I stand here trembling next to my fellow soldiers.

We fought so bravely to defend our homeland, but in the end they were just too much for us.

My wife and children are at home. I force thoughts of them out of my mind. I do now know if I will ever see them again. I do not know if they will survive this war.

Blood and sweat trickle down my temple. My knees shake. My armor rattles. My teeth shiver.

Why have we been standing here so long? I wish I would have been killed in the battle.

I wish we had had more men to fight along side of.... what?

What was that?

Looking to my right and see one of my brothers brought down by the plunge of a sword.

They are far off, but I recognize that sound of metal piercing bone even from here.

What is happening? O God, what is happening.

The man with the sword is making his way towards me. I don't remember seeing him in battle befo.... O God, no!

Another one of my brothers has been pierced and put down.

What is the rhyme or reason here? How is he deciding who to slay and who to save?

What is the logic? How can I survive? Who will die? Who will live?

It's too late to manipulate my odds now.

O God, another one slain. My heart beats against my breastplate. My temples are full of blood.

The man is drawing closer and killing men. Not all men, but some. No one is speaking.

How is he deciding? Is this all random? How can I avoid his gaze?

Here he comes. Do not look at him. Maybe he won't.....

O God, this is how I die? Like this? For what? And why?

---

All religion is as fickle as decimation.
A crapshoot.
A daisy saying, "He loves me, He loves me not."

Only in Jesus is there any assurance of salvation.

No Jesus. No peace.
Know Jesus. Know peace.

Yeah, I'm with you: it's lame.
But it is accurate.

good God man!

Deuteronomy 29:29

The hidden things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

God is sovereign over each and every thing. Nothing happens without His permission. There is nothing that happens that He could not have altered. There is nothing that takes place in which He is powerless to intercede and interfere.

God is holy and in His grace has communicated to us that which is in keeping with His holiness. "Love of God and neighbor" being the summary of it all.

When someone asks, "Was it God's will that ______ happened?" the answer is always "Yes," in one sense.

Nothing has ever happened outside of His control. Ever.

Is it God's will that children are aborted?

In one sense, "Yes" because He allows it to occur.
Does this make His goodness suspect?
Does this make Him the author of evil?
No.

In another sense it is not God's will that any should be murdered.
He specifically commands people not to murder.

How can God be good and in perfect control?

If He is in perfect control, then why doesn't He stop evil?
If He is good, then why does He allow bad?

Some conclude that God must not be in full control.

They do so on the basis of believing He is good, but find themselves stumped as to why so much bad takes place. They conclude that must mean that He wishes good things, but cannot make them happen for whatever reason.

Others conclude that God must not be good.

They do so on the basis of believing He is fully in control, but find themselves stumped as to why so much bad takes place. They conclude that must mean that He is in fully in control, but does not care about goodness or justice for whatever reason.

If you bend on either of these points, you create a scenario the eliminates Jesus.

If you defend His goodness and surrender His power, you end up with a God who is likeable, but weak. He is not someone to Whom we should turn or offer prayer because He can't do anything about it anyways.

If you defend His power and surrender His goodness, you end up with a God who is powerful, but mean. He is not someone to Whom we should turn or offer prayer because He doesn't care about anything anyways.

Rest assured, Jesus is good and He is in charge.

The secret things belong to Him: I do not know why people are allowed to abort their children.

The revealed things belong to us: I do know that sacrificing children to idols (no matter how modern and suave) is forbidden and not from God.

The secret things belong to Him: I do not know why God designed a world for the purpose of sending His Son to die for us to show His love.

The revealed things belong to us: We should worship the Son and surrender our lives to Him because on the Cross He proves that He is good and in control.

Jesus is worthy of both titles: Good and God.

Still hungry?
Here more about this from Tullian Tchidjian HERE.

q & a

John 6:28-29

Q: ²⁸ Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

A: ²⁹ Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

You cannot do the works of God. 
Only God works.
God accomplishes His work on His own. 
Do you believe this? 
Do you believe in the One who does all of this?

John 6:44

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.