Mercy enough to cover ALL our sin

“…a Christian may be comforted, first of all, in respect of his former justification. His new sin does not cancel his former pardon, though it will interrupt and disturb his present peace and comfort from it. And secondly, he may be comforted in this, that there is mercy enough in God to cover all his sins, grace enough in Christ to cure this fresh sin. And further, in this he is to find comfort, that God does not suffer him to live in sin, but that He has revealed his sin to him, humbled him for it, and brought him back to Christ in whom he may renew his peace and regain his sense of comfort.”

Samuel Bolton, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, p. 154

(HT: John Fonville)

Filed under: Christ our Mediator, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's grace, Jesus Christ, Justification, Reconciliation, Redemption, Salvation, Sanctification, Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, The Cross, The Gospel

Bonhoeffer on the Difference Between the Counsel of Psychiatry and Christianity

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (pp. 118-119):

The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus.

The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is.

Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this.

In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner.

The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness.

The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ.

(HT: David Powlison – via Justin Taylor)

Filed under: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Evangelical, Forgiveness, Jesus Christ, The Cross

Why He Came

John Piper:

“He (Jesus) came not to make neutral people pro-Jesus, but to make guilty people not guilty, and dead people alive. That’s why He came. And it’s all undeserved grace when it happens.”

(HT: Reformed Voices)

Filed under: Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Justification, New Birth, Salvation, The Gospel

We have no rights, but we do have the gospel

Jerry Bridges on , faithfulness, forgiveness, and rights.

(HT: Audiance One)

Filed under: Discipleship, Evangelical, Forgiveness, Gospel-centred, Jerry Bridges, Jesus Christ, Sanctification, The Gospel, The word of God

Blessings through the Blood

From Anthony Carter via Thabiti Anyabwile:

13 Blessings which come to God’s elect by way of our Saviour’s blood:

1. We have the new covenant in His blood (Lk. 22:20): And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

2. We have been purchased by His blood (Acts 20:28): Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

3. He is our propitiation by His blood (Rom. 3:25): Whom God put forward as propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…

4. We have been justified by His blood (Rom. 5:9): Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

5. We have redemption through his blood (Eph. 1:7): In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

6. We have been brought near by His blood (Eph. 2:13): But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

7. We have peace through His blood (Col. 1:20): For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven making peace by the blood of his cross.

8. We have our consciences purified by His blood (Heb. 9:14): how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

9. We have been sanctified through His blood (Heb. 13:12): So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

10. We are elect according to His blood (1Pet. 1:2): …elect…according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for the obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.

11. We are ransomed by His blood (1Pet. 1:19): …knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, no with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ…

12. We have been cleansed from all our sins by His blood (1Jn. 1:7): But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

13. We are free from sin by His blood (Rev. 1:5): …from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.

Filed under: Christ our Mediator, Evangelical, Forgiveness, Jesus Christ, Justification, Propitiation, Reconciliation, Redemption, Salvation, Sanctification, Substitutionary Atonement, The Cross, The word of God

“I just want him to come to know Jesus…”

I’m grateful to Justin Childers for posting this amazing testimony.

Only the power of the gospel could make the wife of a slain pastor say things like this:

Filed under: Evangelical, Forgiveness, God centredness, God's grace, Jesus Christ, Suffering, Testimony, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel

“The majesty of God’s forgiveness . . .”

“The majesty of God’s forgiveness is lost entirely when we lose what has to be forgiven. What has to be forgiven is not just what we do but who we are, not just our sinning but our sinfulness, not just our choices but what we have chosen in place of God. . . . When we miss the biblical teaching, we also miss the nature of God’s grace in all its height and depth. In biblical faith it is God’s grace through Christ that does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.”

- David F. Wells, The Courage to Be Protestant (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 167.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Filed under: Conviction of Sin, David Wells, Discipleship, Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's grace, God's mercy, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sanctification, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God

Leviticus 16:21-22

“In Passion Week, as I was reading Bishop Wilson on the Lord’s Supper, I met with an expression to this effect — ‘that the Jews knew what they did, when they transferred their sin to the head of their offering.’ The thought came into my mind, ‘What, may I transfer all my guilt to another? Has God provided an Offering for me, that I may lay my sins on His head? Then, God willing, I will not bear them on my own soul one moment longer. Accordingly, I sought to lay my sins upon the sacred head of Jesus.”

Charles Simeon, describing his conversion, in H. C. G. Moule, Charles Simeon, pages 25-26.

(HT: Ray Ortlund)

Filed under: Conviction of Sin, Doctrine, Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's grace, God's mercy, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sanctification, Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God, Union with Christ

The Real Christmas Story – John MacArthur

Filed under: Advent, Christmas, Doctrine, Eternal Punishment, Forgiveness, God's grace, God's holiness, God's justice, God's mercy, Jesus Christ, Penal substitution, Salvation, Sin, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Cross, The Gospel, The Incarnation, The word of God

Preach it sister!

Oh! How I wish more testimonies sounded like this:

(HT: CRN)

Filed under: Conviction of Sin, Doctrines of Grace, Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's grace, God's holiness, Jesus Christ, Saving faith, Testimony, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God

The mark of the wounds

From the end of a letter written by Jonathan Edwards to Deborah Hatheway (June 3, 1741):

“Don’t talk of things
of religion
and matters of experience
with an air of lightness and laughter,
which is too much the manner in many places.
In all your course,
walk with God
and follow Christ
as a little,
poor,
helpless child,
taking hold of Christ’s hand,
keeping your eye
on the mark of the wounds
on his hands
and side,
whence came the blood
that cleanses you from sin
and hides
your nakedness
under the skirt of the white shining robe
of his righteousness.”

(HT: Tony Reinke)

Filed under: Discipleship, Doctrine, Doctrines of Grace, Forgiveness, God's grace, Jesus Christ, Jonathan Edwards, Salvation, Substitutionary Atonement, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel

Spurgeon – Conviction of Sin Essential for Salvation

I am grateful for Adrian Warnock quoting from ‘The Soul Winner’.   I agree with Adrian and Spurgeon.

Adrian says: I wonder—when was the last time you heard another Christian preach or speak about conviction of sin? When was the last time you saw someone on the brink of salvation in tears of anxiety and burden because of a distinct awareness of their sinfulness? It seems to me that true conviction is not present as much as it should be today. If Spurgeon is right, if anyone has not experienced it, we should be very concerned about the validity of their salvation.

“First, regeneration will be shown in conviction of sin. This we believe to be an indispensable mark of the Spirit’s work; the new life as it enters the heart causes intense inward pain as one of its first effects. Though nowadays we hear of persons being healed before they have been wounded, and brought into a certainty of justification without ever having lamented their condemnation, we are very dubious as to the value of such healings and justifyings. This style of things is not according to the truth. God never clothes men until He has first stripped them, nor does He quicken them by the gospel till first they are slain by the law.

When you meet with persons in whom there is no trace of conviction of sin, you may be quite sure that they have not been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit; for “when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” When the Spirit of the Lord breathes on us, He withers all the glory of man, which is but as the flower of grass, and then He reveals a higher and abiding glory. Do not be astonished if you find this conviction of sin to be very acute and alarming; but, on the other hand, do not condemn those in whom it is less intense, for so long as sin is mourned over, confessed, forsaken, and abhorred, you have an evident fruit of the Spirit. Much of the horror and unbelief which goes with conviction is not of the Spirit of God, but comes of Satan or corrupt nature; yet there must be true and deep conviction of sin, and this the preacher must labour to produce, for where this is not felt the new birth has not taken place.”

— C. H. Spurgeon

Filed under: Conviction of Sin, Doctrine, Evangelical, Evangelism, Forgiveness, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Regeneration, Salvation, Sin, The Gospel, The word of God

God’s love shown through Christ’s substitution

Gresham Machen

“It is a strange thing that when men talk about the love of God, they show by every word that they utter that they have no conception at all of the depths of God’s love.

“If you want to find an instance of true gratitude for the infinite grace of God, do not go to those who think of God’s love as something that cost nothing, but go rather to those who in agony of soul have faced the awful fact of the guilt of sin, and then have come to know with a trembling wonder that the miracle of all miracles has been accomplished, and that the eternal Son has died in their stead.”

- J. Gresham Machen

(HT: Todd Pruitt)

Filed under: Conviction of Sin, Discipleship, Evangelical, Forgiveness, God's Love, God's mercy, Grace, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sanctification, Substitutionary Atonement, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel, The word of God

Signs of Forgiveness

“Whenever God pardons sin, He subdues it, Micah 7:19. Then is the condemning power of sin taken away, when the commanding power of it is taken away. If a malefactor be in prison, how shall he know that his prince hath pardoned him? If a jailer come and knock off his chains and fetters, and lets him out of prison, then he may know he is pardoned; so, how shall we know God hath pardoned us? If the fetters of sin be broken off, and we walk at liberty in the ways of God, this is a blessed sign we are pardoned.”
-Thomas Watson

(HT: Reformed Voices)

Filed under: Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, Forgiveness, Grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Power of God, Puritan, Salvation, Sanctification, Sin, The Christian Life, The Gospel, The word of God, Thomas Watson, Union with Christ