This is Who We Are: What a Baptist Is and Believes - God's Purpose of Grace

At this point, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 has discussed God, man, salvation, & so much more.  Now we turn to God’s work in salvation & our security.  Many today continue to debate & despair over the question of assurance.  What assurance do we have that right now that we are still  reconciled with God, called into His kingdom, & adopted as His child?  Am I still saved?  Have I squandered my salvation?  What assurance do I have?

The despair over the uncertainty of one’s salvation can be devastating.  And it is at this point that one of the Baptist distinctives come to our aid: the perseverance of the saints.  The BF&M 2000 reads:

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.

All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. [1]

So what assurance do true believers have that we are still in the loving arms of the Father?  One word: God.  That is the argument put forward above.  Salvation is not the work of man, but of God.  God is the One who put on flesh.  God, in the Person of the Son, bore our sins as our atoning substitute.  God satisfied His own wrath, redeemed a people, & saves souls for His own glory.  Man plays no role in any of it.  All our “righteousness” is like filthy rags.  Even the most noble of works is tainted with sin.

This means that our security is determined by God.  And being that God makes no mistakes (He is perfect & cannot lie), never changes (He is Immutable), & His wrath is fully & completely satisfied for the repentant due to the saving work of Christ on the cross, believers – true believers – cannot & will not lose their salvation.  This is the point in the first paragraph.  It is God – & God alone – who regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners.  Sinners cannot accomplish such glory.  Only God can.

However, this does not mean that salvation is a get-out-of-hell-free-card.  It is more than fire insurance.  It involves more than saying a prayer, walking an aisle, and getting baptized.  No.  Salvation is much bigger than that.

Salvation regenerates us changing us from the inside out.  Though none of us are what we ought to be yet, praise God, we are not what we once were.  The reason is because God is working in our lives.  That which God begins, God will accomplish.  Making us more like Him is one of God’s greatest works.

This is what is meant in the second paragraph:  All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.  This is the wonderful doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.”  Words like “eternal security” or “once saved always saved,” though true, are misleading.  It implies that persons can “accept Jesus” superficially and then live however they want to.  Perseverance of the Saints implies that true believers – saints – will live godly lives that reflects their Savior and will persevere to the end in obedience to their saving Father.  Everyday, for such believers, is another opportunity to be more like Christ.

Certainly Christians sin, but not with glee.  Our goal is to be more like Christ, not less like Him.  Believers will persevere to the end with this ultimate goal.  Though we have not attained such glorification yet, we look forward to the day that we do.

This all comes down to where we began.  Do we have assurance of our salvation?  Every religion in the world offers an emphatic no.  The reason is because they are built on what man does, instead of what God has done.  If God is the author and finisher of our faith, then rest knowing that you are safe in the arms of God trusting in the saving work of the cross.  But assurance works both ways.  Trust in yourself and your self-righteousness and I can assure you that you are lost and will remain so.  Salvation is of God, not of man and so long as you strive for grace you will never achieve it. Instead, come to the cross in full humility, and embrace the gospel.  Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!


[1]  See Gen 12:1-3; Ex 19:5-8; 1 Sam 8:4-7,19-22; Isa 5:1-7; Jer 31:31ff.; Matt 16:18-19; 21:28-45; 24:22,31; 25:34; Luke 1:68-79; 2:29-32; 19:41-44; 24:44-48; John 1:12-14; 3:16; 5:24; 6:44-45,65; 10:27-29; 15:16; 17:6,12,17-18; Acts 20:32; Rom 5:9-10; 8:28-39; 10:12-15; 11:5-7,26-36; 1 Cor 1:1-2; 15:24-28; Eph 1:4-23; 2:1-10; 3:1-11; Col 1:12-14; 2 Th 2:13-14; 2 Tim 1:12; 2:10,19; Heb 11:39–12:2; Jam 1:12; 1 Pet 1:2-5,13; 2:4-10; 1 John 1:7-9; 2:19; 3:2.


This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Introduction
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Scripture
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God
This is Who We Are  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Father
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Son
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Spirit
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Man  
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Salvation 

God: Proper Theology Proper Sermon Series

For the past few months, we have finished the year discussing the subject of God - better known as Theology Proper.  All theology is practical and what we believe about God shapes everything we are, believe, say, think, and do.  It has been a fascinating study and I have enjoyed it a lot and have been challenged by it.  Our God is simply too small.  If we want real hope, comfort, assurance, peace, joy, love, and contentment, then  we need to come meet the God of Scripture and the God of the gospel.

Below are all of the sermon links which include the notes and audio (when available).  In addition I have included every blog post, past sermons that relate the Theology Proper, articles, and book reviews that I have written.  I hope it all helps. 

SERMONS

September 12, 2010 - God is Creator 
September 19, 2010 - God is Provident 
October 10, 2010 - God is Sovereign  
October 24, 2010 - God is Immutable
October 31, 2010 - God is Holy 
November 7, 2010 - God is Jealous
November 13, 2010 -  God is Love
November 20, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Father
November 27, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Spirit
December 5, 2010 - Jesus is Lord
December 19, 2010 - Jesus is God

ARTICLES

Calvin on Providence  
Tozer on Immutability  
The Immutability of God Series  
Tozer on Holiness  
Third Day:  Our God is a "Consuming Fire"  
Repost - Is God Jealous?:  Oprah Weighs In  
MacDonald on the Love of God   
DeYoung on the Trinity  
MacArthur on the Comfort of the Spirit 
The Nicene Creed 
Stewart on the Lordship of Christ  
Grudem on the Deity of Christ 
The Gospel Coalition on the Deity of Christ  
Mahaney on the Person and Work of Christ:  Christ Our Mediator  
Stomach Virus' and the Humanity of Christ:  Moore on the Suffering and Sick Servant
Sayers on the Incarnation of Christ  
If Jesus Were Born in Our Digital Age

OTHER

August 1, 2010 - Matthew 6:25-34 - Worry and the Providence of God:  What Our Anxiety Says About What We Believe About God
April 18, 2010 - Haggai 2:1-9 - And the Lord Said, "Get-r-Done"
August 30, 2009 - Psalm 23:6 - The Peace of the Shepherd's Providence 
Esther 4 - God's Providence 
Providence and Prayer:  Carson Responds
This is Who WE Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God   
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Father
Theology - The Immutability of God:  Its Truth and Relevancy - Introduction (Part 1)
Theology - The Immutability of God:  Its Truth and Relevancy - Scriptural Foundation (Part 2)
Theology - The Immutability of God:  Its Truth and Relevancy - Scriptural Challenges (Part 3)
Theology - The Immutability of God:  Its Truth and Relevancy - Theological Challenges (Part 4)
Theology - The Immutability of God:  Its Truth and Relevancy - Practical Implications (Part 5) 
Theology - The Immutability of God:  Its Truth and Relevancy - Theological Implications (Part 6)
Sermon Podcast - April 26, 2010 - The Immutability of God 
Sermon Podcast - November 29, 2009 - The Transcendence of the Gospel
Theology - The Stipulation that Paralyzes:  Tony Jones and the Limits of the Emergent Worldview
Theology - Orthopraxy is Rooted in Orthodoxy - The Postmodern Return to Rome
Commentary - Accomodationism Breed Irrelevancy:  Why Liberalism Fails and the Transcendent Gospel Triumphs 

BOOKS

Reviews - "The Gospel According to Jesus" by John MacArthur 
Reviews -  Reviews in Brief - The Doctrine of Divine Creation  
Reviews - "The Benefits of Providence"  
Reviews -Reviews in Brief - The Doctrine of Divine Providence  
Reviews - "The Sovereignty of God"  
Reviews - "The God Who Loves"
Reviews - "Be Happy You Are Loved" 
Reviews - "Godly Jealousy"
Reviews - Reviews in Brief - Trinity 
Reviews - "Their God is Too Small" 
Reviews - "Knowing God"
Reviews - "Gripped By the Greatness of God" 
Reviews - "The Reason for God" 

PREVIOUS SERIES:
The Sermon on the Mount Series
Matthew Thus Far:  Matthew 1-5
The Last Week of Jesus: From Triumphal Entry to Triumphal Grave Series
Fruitie-Tales: Living By the Fruit of the Spirit
Basic Christianity Series
Revelation Study

December 26, 2010 - Jesus is Human

Here is the last sermon in our series on the Doctrine of God (known as Theology Proper) and the Person and Nature of Jesus Christ - the Second Person of the Trinity - known as Christology.  Due to the weather and other events, I did not record the message but have posted the notes.


Notes


For more:
Mahaney on the Person and Work of Christ:  Christ Our Mediator  
Stomach Virus' and the Humanity of Christ:  Moore on the Suffering and Sick Servant 
Sayers on the Incarnation of Christ  
If Jesus Were Born in Our Digital Age
September 12, 2010 - God is Creator 
September 19, 2010 - God is Provident 
October 10, 2010 - God is Sovereign  
October 24, 2010 - God is Immutable
October 31, 2010 - God is Holy 
November 7, 2010 - God is Jealous
November 13, 2010 -  God is Love
November 20, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Father
November 27, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Spirit
December 5, 2010 - Jesus is Lord
December 19, 2010 - Jesus is God

December 19, 2010 - Jesus is God

I know I'm 10 days late, but here is the audio and notes from the sermon on the Deity of Jesus Christ.

Audio
Notes





For more:
Grudem on the Deity of Christ 
The Gospel Coalition on the Deity of Christ 
September 12, 2010 - God is Creator 
September 19, 2010 - God is Provident 
October 10, 2010 - God is Sovereign  
October 24, 2010 - God is Immutable
October 31, 2010 - God is Holy 
November 7, 2010 - God is Jealous
November 13, 2010 -  God is Love
November 20, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Father
November 27, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Spirit  
December 5, 2010 - Jesus is Lord 

Bibledex on Amos

Its been a while since we've been able to meet on Wednesday night for Bible study and prayer.  Tonight we continue our series of the Bible book by book backwards.  We find ourselves in the Minor Prophets still and tonight we will discuss the wonderful book of the Prophet Amos.  In preparation of that, here is the video produced by the folks at Bibledex on the book of Amos.  As always, I don't agree with everything that is said and the conclusions that are promoted, but I do find them to be helpful videos and this one is no different.





For more:
Bibledex on Jonah  
Bibledex on Malachi 
Bibledex on Nahum  
Bibledex on Habbakuk 
Bibledex on Zephaniah
Bibledex on Zechariah
Bibledex on Malachi  
Bibledex on Matthew 
Bibledex on Mark  
Bibledex on Luke 
Bibledex on John 
Bibledex on Romans
Bibledex on 2 Corinthians
Bibledex on Ephesians 
Bibledex on Philippians
Bibledex on Colossians 
Bibledex on 2 Thessalonians   

This is Who We Are: What a Baptist Is and Believes - Salvation

What is the gospel? That is one of the most important questions we can ever ask.  Unless we answer this question, nothing else we think about, ask about, focus on, believe in, or do will matter.  The gospel identifies the Church, redeems the Church, and is the rock by which the Church is built on.  What is the gospel?

That’s essentially what the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 discusses next.  How is a person “saved?”  How does one get right with God?  What is the gospel?  The BF&M 2000 offer a rather theologically robust and technical answer to that question that at first glance appears rather difficult to understand.  Words like regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification aren’t exactly words we use in everyday conversation, but they are important nonetheless.  The BF&M 2000 says:
               
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.

Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.

B. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.

C. Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.

D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed. [1]

This confession of faith is well written and defines the issue pretty well, the problem is that to the average Christian, much of what is laid out here is difficult to understand even though each issue raised here is imperative and very much part of the gospel.  So what is the gospel? It begins with God’s holiness and our depravity.  We cannot save ourselves because our God is infinitely holy and we finite beings are depraved to our core.  Even the “good” things we do are tainted with sin, thus if we were to rely on our works alone, we would present God a filthy rag of righteousness (Isaiah 64:6).  God is so holy that He cannot ignore our rebellion.  What we need, then, is a substitute.  What we need is grace.

The gospel offers such grace through the substituting work of Christ on the cross by which our sins are imputed (there’s a big word) onto Him and at the resurrection of Christ His righteousness is imputed (there it is again) onto us.  In other words, “[God] made [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Christ took upon Himself our sin so that when God sees us, He sees the righteousness of Christ.

The cross and resurrection does not just give us a clean slate for us to dirty up again, but a new self, a new life.  This is what we mean by regeneration.  God, through Christ, makes us “new creatures” (vs. 17) whereby we become more like Christ.  Therefore, the gospel says that we are both “saved” now (justification) and are in the process of being “saved” (sanctification) meaning that we are growing in Christ becoming more like our Savior.  Unfortunately man approach the gospel as fire insurance whereby after saying a prayer or getting baptized we’re promised heaven after we die.  That is only part of it.  The gospel is a reformation of who we are at our core.  We are no longer the old man, but a new man that seeks to be more like our Savior.  This means that to be a Christian we both are redeemed at the cross and live by the cross.  Look to the cross and resurrection in everyday life trusting that God will use us for His glory.  We need to seek to reflect Him who bought us at the cross making us children of God, siblings of Christ.  Look to the cross.  Repent.  Believe.  And you will be saved. 

That is the gospel.  Do you believe in this gospel?


[1]  See the following references:  Gen 3:15; Ex 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matt 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Rom 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Cor 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Cor 5:17-20; Gal 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Eph 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Phil 2:12-13; Col 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thess 5:23-24; 2 Tim 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Heb 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Pet 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Rev 3:20; 21:1-22:5.


For more:
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Introduction
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Scripture
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God
This is Who We Are  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Father
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Son
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - God the Spirit  
This is Who We Are:  What a Baptist Is and Believes - Man  

Mahaney on the Person and Work of Christ: Christ Our Mediator

I love the following passage taken from CJ Mahaney's book Christ Our Mediator: Finding Passion at the Cross (LifeChange Books).  Its a short book that can be read quickly, but its content is fantastic.  Let us always be reflecting on the cross!  Tomorrow we will be discusing the humanity of Christ and in the following quote, Mahaney shows how Christ's humanity and deity are necessary in order for the gospel to be real.  If Chrit is one and not the other then we remain in our sins.

Since sin has been committed by man, therefore sin must be atoned for by a man.  Only a human being can be the perfect substitute for other human beings.  The deb and obligation and responsibility is mankind’s alone.  Neither you nor I, however, can atone for our sin to satisfy God’s righteous requirements; our own disobedience already condemns us before a righteous God.  Furthermore, we’re captive to sin; it’s humanly impossible for us to release ourselves from its rip.  Even if somehow, from this moment forward, we steeled ourselves to stop winning (which is impossible), our record is still stain by the sins of our past.


That’s our condition – having no possible way to atone for our sin, nor any possible way to free ourselves from enslavement to it.
 
A divine rescue is necessary.  We need a savior.  And in order to be our savior, in order to pay our debt, this individual must be like us – not just God in a form that merely appears to be human, but someone fully and truly human.  Yet he must be unlike us as well, because he must be sinless, since only a perfect sacrifice is acceptable.  He must be fully God, and not simply a man with a limited set of divine powers an abilities.  -44-45

Stomach Virus' and the Humanity of Christ: Moore on the Suffering and Sick Servant

If everything had worked according to plan, we would be discussing the humanity of Jesus this upcoming Sunday, but do to the snow last Sunday, we will discuss that a week later.  Recently I came across an article by Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Dr. Russell Moore regarding the humanity of Jesus.  Moore raises the question:  did Jesus ever have a stomach virus?  This is an interesting question and it has been asked in many different ways.  The question is basically about how human Jesus was.

It is important to remember that Jesus wasn't a sort superman:  all God and not human at all.  Instead, Jesus was both fully human and fully God.  It is dangerous to overemphasize one and ignore the other.  Moore writes:


Last week a friend called my office to leave a question she wanted some help thinking through. Could Jesus have gotten a stomach virus? Or the flu? Or a head cold? This question was rooted in something a little deeper. Since sickness is part of the curse of the Fall, would Jesus’ sinless nature have exempted him from viruses and bugs and fevers?

That night one of my sons woke us, crying as the stomach virus hit with all the unpleasantness that brings. As I watched his little frame tremble as he vomited, I thought about this woman’s question. Would Mary have ever watched her little firstborn in the throes of such sickness? . . .

The Scripture repeatedly makes a point of telling us about Jesus’ exhaustion, about his digestion of food, in order to make the point that our Christ really identified with us in every aspect of our common humanity, except for our sin (Heb. 4:15).

The very beginning of the Christ story itself tells us that part of the sign of the Messiah is that he is wrapped in cloths (Lk. 2:12). Why do you wrap cloths around a baby? For the same reason you might diaper your baby, or wrap her up in a blanket. The point is to keep the baby warm, and to keep him dry from waste. This signifies from the very beginning just how much Jesus is our brother, sharing with us a human nervous system and a human digestive system.

It’s also hard for us to imagine the radical nature of substitution. Of course, we understand Jesus’ suffering for us on the Cross. But the Cross was culmination, not the beginning of Jesus’ identification with us. Jesus walked into a world fallen with sin, a world cursed by thorns, death, and, yes, sickness. Though Jesus clearly had power of sickness in his healing ministry, and over death itself, he voluntarily joined us in a world of suffering and pain, for the purpose of offering up a sacrifice and restoring human peace with God and nature . . .

It just doesn’t seem right to us to imagine Jesus feverish or vomiting. But that’s precisely the scandal. It didn’t seem right to many to imagine Jesus as really flesh and bone, filled with blood and intestines and urine. 

Somehow that seemed to detract from his deity. It surely didn’t seem right to many to imagine the only begotten of the Father twisting in pain on a crucifixion stake, screaming as he drowned in his own blood. This was humiliating, undignified. That’s just the point. Jesus joined us in our humiliation, in our indignity.

I hope you don’t get a stomach virus this year, or the flu or the fever or a cold. But, if you do, I hope you remember, just for a minute, in your discomfort that Jesus has passed through everything you’ll ever face. He might have been racked with nausea or chills or aches, just as you are. And then he faced far, far worse.

But, as you lie there, remember the gospel of incarnation and substitution, a gospel that comes, as the old song says, to make his blessings known “far as the curse is found.”

There is some great insight here.  I love the emphasis on the cross.  The suffering of Jesus makes no sense unless Jesus is human.  If Jesus is not human then the cross loses its power.  This is hugely practical as we'll discuss next week.  I encourage you to read the entire article.


Russell Moore - Did Jesus Ever Get a Stomach Virus? 

If Jesus Were Born in Our Digital World

This is one of the best videos I have seen in some time.  I hope you enjoy it.  What would happen if Mary were pregnant today?

The 12 Doctrines of Christmas: A Funny Video

I thought this was important.  I realize that many won't know what they're saying (words like Hypostatic Union and perspicuity aren't exactly words the average Christian uses everyday), one can still appreciate it.  I like the argument over the 5 points of Calvinism at the beginning.  Funny stuff.





HT:  Reformation Theology

Sayers on the Incarnation of Christ

I came across the following quote attributed to Dorothy Sayers regarding the Incarnation of Christ that I thought was very insightful.

If Christ was only man, then He is entirely irrelevant to any thought about God; if He is only God, then He is entirely irrelevant to any experience of human life. It is, in the strictest sense, necessary to the salvation of relevance that a man should believe rightly the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Unless he believes rightly, there is not the faintest reason why he should believe at all.

Sayers is right.  The gospel is an impossible promise if Jesus is simply an enlightened man.  At the same time, we must balance the deity of Christ along with the humanity of Christ.  It should be a fascinating conversation Sunday morning.


World Magazine Blog - The Incarnate God 

Grudem on the Deity of Christ

Wayne Grudem's theology book Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine is one of the best-selling and most widely read theology books today and for good reason.  I have used this book throughout our study of Theology Proper and Christology and this week is no different.  In his chapter on the Person of Christ (which we are exploring this month), Grudem offers three reasons why the Doctrine of the Deity of Christ and rightly understanding it is necessary:

1.    Only someone who is infinite God could bear the full penalty for all the sins of all those who would believe in him – any finite creature would have been incapable of bearing that penalty.  -553

2.    Salvation is from the Lord (Jonah 2:9 NASB), and the whole message of Scripture is designed to show that no human being, no creature, could ever save man 00 only God himself could.  -553

3.    Only someone who was truly and fully God could be the one mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5), both to bring us back to God and also to reveal God most fully to us (John 14:9).  -553

Grudem then concludes:

Thus, if Jesus is not fully God, we have no salvation and ultimately no Christianity.  It is no accident that throughout history those groups that have given up belief in the full deity of Christ have not remained long within the Christian faith but have soon drifted toward the kind of religion represented by Unitarianism in the United States and elsewhere.  ‘No one who denies the Son has the Father’ (1 John 2:23).  ‘Any one who goes ahead and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have; he who abides in the doctrine has both the Father and the Son’ (2 John 9).  -554

Grudem is right.  The full deity of Christ is imperative and to reject it is to reject Chrsitianity.

The Gospel Coalition on the Deity of Christ

Many reject the fully deity of Jesus Christ.  Though to many of us that is rather shocking, we shouldn't be surprised.  After all, if Jesus is God then what He said, did, and commands is more than another man's opinion but divine revelation from the Divine Himself.  Many reject the deity of Christ in an attempt to undermine His message and particularly the meaning of the cross and resurrection.

The Gospel Coalition website (a great site!) has published a few clips taken from some interviews on the issue of the Deity of Christ that I thought was helpful and worth posting here.  Each video is brief:

December 5, 2010 - Jesus is Lord

Here is the audio and notes from this past Sunday's message on the Lordship of Jesus.  For the month of December, we will be exploring the Doctrine of Christ commonly referred to by theologians as Christology.  We'll discuss particularly His Person/Nature and Work and it should be a great discussion.





Audio 
Notes 


For more:
Reviews - "The Gospel According to Jesus" by John MacArthur 
Stewart on the Lordship of Christ 
September 12, 2010 - God is Creator 
September 19, 2010 - God is Provident 
October 10, 2010 - God is Sovereign  
October 24, 2010 - God is Immutable
October 31, 2010 - God is Holy 
November 7, 2010 - God is Jealous
November 13, 2010 -  God is Love
November 20, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Father
November 27, 2010 - God is Triune:  God the Spirit  

Stewart on the Lordship of Christ

James A. Stewart has written one of the best summaries on the issue of submitting to the Lordship of Christ.  Though the "Lordship Controversy" appears to be a thing of the past, it remains a fresh conversation for us to have.  Here's the debate:  must a believer accept Jesus as both their Savior and their Lord in order to be saved?  In other words, must a person not only trust that Jesus can save them if they believe, but also repent and bear the fruits of their repentance?

I believe that those in whom God justifies on account of the substitutionary death of Christ He also sanctifies in the Spirit.  This means that salvation is more than a get-out-of-hell-free-card, but a call to repentance whereby we submit to our Lord, pick up our cross, and follow Him.  We surrender all.  Submit all.  And sacrifice all just as our Lord did for us.

Here is what Stewart had to say on the subject:

There are many who want to be saved from the consequences of their sin, who do not want to be saved from the love of it. Many want to be delivered from sin's curse and sin's wages, who do not want to bow their neck to the yoke of Christ. There are many who are attracted by the Gospel message and see the way of salvation, who are still possessing a craving for this present evil age. How great the need for care, lest by an inadequate presentation of the truth of the Gospel we deceive these souls into a false profession. There is a grave danger that many people will make a mistake of substituting an emotional religious crisis for a born-again experience. To preach Christ as Saviour without preaching Christ as Lord, makes a mockery of the Gospel and the entire Christian life. There must be true repentance. 'If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him' (I John 2 : 15).

To those who want to receive Christ as Saviour in order to have a passport to Heaven, but desire to remain in their sins and in the world, we must be faithful and declare like Peter, 'Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity' (Acts 8:21-23).

Mr. Spurgeon warns his students: 'If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do you imagine that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Saviour, while they are wedded to their idols and their hearts are still in love with sin? If I do so, I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel, insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness.'

To read the rest, click here.


James A. Stewart - The Lordship of Christ - True Repentance