This pretty much sums up my capacity to understand the gospel. While I certainly think we should be diligent to read and communicate, it all comes down to this excerpt from Spurgeon:
We have those in our company who never will be able to give a systematic statement of the doctrines of grace, though they are full of grace. They could never explain how they were saved; but they are saved. I daresay the snail could never explain how he got into the ark, but he did get in; and these feeble ones are in Christ, though they cannot fully explain how they came to that blessed position. Some of these good people are not very apt to receive knowledge: they are not "learnable", if I may coin a word to express my meaning. We cannot make them learn. They are willing to be taught, they are teachable; but they are not "learnable." Ah, well, our blessed High Priest can have compassion on the ignorant, and the feeble-minded!
Read the whole sermon here.
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Jul 10, 2007
Jun 30, 2007
Remember that song...
"Let's just forget about ourselves, magnify the Lord, and worship Him"
If you had a "born on date" (if you drink domestic beer, you know what this is) into Christendom during the 70s or early 80s you probably remember this song. I was reflecting, by the way of D.A. Carson's Worship by the Book, how incomplete this line is. If we are simply told to forget about ourselves and sing this song, even after about 4 times through, we are no farther along. Think about it. Are we drawn to leave anything for something else unless we are persuaded and can see that what we don't yet have is better than what we already have? We love ourselves dearly. In fact, we are completely stuck on self-preservation and self-worship. Our only possible way out of this is for us to somehow see something even better. The only way to turn away from ourselves is not to forget about ourselves, but to remember and see Christ. Until seeing Him we don't see ourselves as less than desirable. If fact to attempt to turn away from ourselves with out turning toward Christ is really more like Buddism or other eastern religions that help us trot on the way to Nirvana, a state of perfect nothingness. So, in short, the gospel never asks us to turn away from ourselves unless we are turning toward the overwhelming superior magesty of Christ himself.
If you had a "born on date" (if you drink domestic beer, you know what this is) into Christendom during the 70s or early 80s you probably remember this song. I was reflecting, by the way of D.A. Carson's Worship by the Book, how incomplete this line is. If we are simply told to forget about ourselves and sing this song, even after about 4 times through, we are no farther along. Think about it. Are we drawn to leave anything for something else unless we are persuaded and can see that what we don't yet have is better than what we already have? We love ourselves dearly. In fact, we are completely stuck on self-preservation and self-worship. Our only possible way out of this is for us to somehow see something even better. The only way to turn away from ourselves is not to forget about ourselves, but to remember and see Christ. Until seeing Him we don't see ourselves as less than desirable. If fact to attempt to turn away from ourselves with out turning toward Christ is really more like Buddism or other eastern religions that help us trot on the way to Nirvana, a state of perfect nothingness. So, in short, the gospel never asks us to turn away from ourselves unless we are turning toward the overwhelming superior magesty of Christ himself.
Jun 7, 2007
Home Alone
I have been thinking much about how much we need other people. And its not to make up for our lonliness. In fact, we need each other to expose our lonliness. The true lonliness is a lonliness of heart, not of company and it is caused not by a lack of friends but by sin. And to expose our sin is the only way to come to Jesus and to really know one another. Read the following excerpts from and comments about Deitrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together
"The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous."
So what do we do? We cover up our sin, and live in hypocrisy. In contrast to this kind of fellowship, the gospel is only for the sinner. We do not have to lie but we can own up to God.
Moreover, we are to confess and be confessed to.
The importance of confession centers around the nature of sin. "Sin demands to have a man by himself."It isolates him, by desiring to remain unknown. Where there is confession, the way is open for returning to the community. In confession one gives up his evil, gives his heart to God, and finds forgiveness and fellowship. Confession should be on a personal basis between two people, not necessarily to the entire church, for in confession to one member confession is made to all. If there is confession, the sinner is never alone again.
"The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous."
So what do we do? We cover up our sin, and live in hypocrisy. In contrast to this kind of fellowship, the gospel is only for the sinner. We do not have to lie but we can own up to God.
Moreover, we are to confess and be confessed to.
The importance of confession centers around the nature of sin. "Sin demands to have a man by himself."It isolates him, by desiring to remain unknown. Where there is confession, the way is open for returning to the community. In confession one gives up his evil, gives his heart to God, and finds forgiveness and fellowship. Confession should be on a personal basis between two people, not necessarily to the entire church, for in confession to one member confession is made to all. If there is confession, the sinner is never alone again.
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