Predestination

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters in Christ!

Today, I will attempt to tackle the single most controversial doctrine the Bible teaches...the doctrine of predestination. That idea that God, before the dawn of time, has set aside a chosen people to receive His mercy and grace, while others get passed over. It is a doctrine that is so very obviously taught within Scripture...but one that is often the subject of great debate.

The most common anthem by most evangelical circles is this: that we have the power to choose God's forgiveness if we but choose to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. The entirety of salvation rests upon our work of choosing God's forgiveness. It is up to us; choose Christ. In this model, faith comes before spiritual renewal. Faith is something we conceive for ourselves, that despite our sinful nature, we can still choose Christ, all on our own. This is a very man-centric way of thinking. If predestination exists, these people cry, it is because God already knew who would respond favorably to the Gospel, and chose them based on that work. In this case, God isn't giving us grace...He's basing His eternal grace on OUR choices and works. He's rewarding good choices.

In the Biblical model, no one...NO ONE...seeks Christ in their natural sinful state. Left on our own, no one would choose salvation. In our sinful natural state, we are enemies of God, and are quite happy to be that way. Romans 3: 10-18 indicates our plight:

¹⁰ As it is written:


“ There is none righteous, no, not one;
¹¹ There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
¹² They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
¹³ “ Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;

“ The poison of asps is under their lips”;
¹⁴ “ Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
¹⁵ “ Their feet are swift to shed blood;
¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways;
¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known.”
¹⁸ “ There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

I don't know about the rest of you, but reading that passage shatters any illusions that we, on our own merit, have any interest in pursuing salvation. This passage is VERY clear that no one seeks God. Not even one. In our sinful state outside of God's mercy (a condition that we are all born in; no one is born a Christian, we are all born sinners), we hate the things of God. Period. Adam and Eve's sin has so corrupted all of humanity that none are born desiring God. In fact, if we look at the world, we see that people, in their natural state, are oblivious to God's existence. Sure, people seek the benefits of God (peace, security, enjoyment of life, joy), but no one seeks God Himself. To seek God Himself is to come face to face with the living God...and to come face to face with God, we would have no choice but to, like Isaiah, acknowledge our very sinful nature, and cry out, like him: "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6) No one...no one...in their sinful nature may see God face to face and live.

So, the myth (and I will boldly call it that) that even in the depths of our sinful nature, our totally depraved nature, we could ever call upon the Lord on our own, is completely shattered. This idea that our salvation is dependent on our decisions is utterly foolish. The idea that God predestines us based on our choices is anathema. God does not consider our works and choices done in our sinful nature. In fact, in our unsaved state, our best decisions and works are like filthy rags, and have no value in the courts of God.

The biggest argument against predestination is that it makes God seem unfair. But God is not unfair. God is looking at us as we are: wicked. Evil. Sinful. Rebellious. In this light, if God chose not to save anyone, He is well within His right. We DESERVE His wrath. We DESERVE His judgment. We all stand guilty and we all deserve to be cast from His sight. If God chooses not to save someone, He isn't being unfair, He's giving us what we deserve. If He chooses to save someone, that is His sovereign and supreme right to do so. We do NOT deserve His grace. Grace, by definition, is UNDESERVED favor. God does what God wants, and what God does is always right. He is so perfectly holy and good that one sin is enough to forever separate us from God. He is God, and we are not. God has elected us based on His decisions, not based on what we do. There is nothing in us that God should desire us. The Maker of heaven and earth does not NEED to save anyone. He is not obligated to save anyone. The fact that He has chosen to save any of us should humble us and make us fall on our face before our God in humility and wonder. Predestination is not an excuse for arrogance. The only proper response before God's glorious electing grace is humility, for anyone truly saved will know they do not deserve this grace.

As He said to Moses, "I will have mercy upon whom I choose to have mercy, and compassion upon whom I choose to have compassion." (Exodus 33: 19) Even in the Old Testament, God chose to make Israel His chosen people. Why not the Philistines? Why not the Hittites? Why the Israelites? Only God knows. He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. He chose to have compassion on Israel and chose to overthrow the other civilizations. Why? Let's leave that up to God and His wise, perfect will. That is a question we will never ever have the answer to.

So we have established that God does not take our choices or actions into account when He predestined all believers. Rather, as Ephesians 1 states, it was His good pleasure to choose whom He did.

Ephesians 1:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Are we reading the Scriptures? He CHOSE us in Him, He PREDESTINED us to adoption, He MADE us accepted by His grace. Every reference in Scripture speaks about what God has done in us, not what we have chosen for ourselves. Consider, if salvation was based on our choices, then Jesus could have died for nothing. It is, in theory, possible that no one would have chosen Christ. He would have been a potential Savior of all, but actual Savior of none. In reality, Jesus died for the elect. Consider:

John 17:

⁹ “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. ¹⁰ And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹ Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. ¹² While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

These are the words of Jesus Christ, God the Son. God the Father has given His elect to God the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) for our souls' safe-keeping. Jesus knew the name of every single soul that God has predestined. He knew who were God's and who were not. Jesus even said He didn't pray for the world, but for those whom God had given.

So...does that mean we have no free will? Every single person has the intellectual ability to respond to the Gospel, to open a Bible, to go to church. Christmas and Easter are prime time for the unsaved to flock to churches to ease their conscience. It doesn't mean they have chosen to be saved. On our own, we as the human race are morally incapable of receiving God's grace. We do not choose to follow Christ in our naturally sinful state for one very plain reason: we do not want to.

Think of this very simple analogy. If your favorite food is pizza, and you have before you the choice of a vegetable that is beneficial to you but doesn't taste very good in your eyes, or a hot, steaming slice of pizza, with cheese and your choice of toppings, your natural inclination is to lean towards the pizza. Left to your own devices, you will choose the pizza. You are responding to the desires of your natural state.

In our natural spiritual state, we lean towards sin. We are responding to the lure and pleasure of sin. Make no mistake...sin has a wicked pleasure that our natural state is drawn to. We COULD stop and turn to God, but in our dead spiritual state, we simply respond to that which appeals to us more. How many lives have been ruined because we have followed our natural sinful inclination! As the saved in Christ, we know that sin leads to death, and so we repent of our sins and cling to Christ, forsaking our sins. But while the unsaved could in theory turn to Christ, their spiritually dead state compels and draws them to sin. That is the strongest desire.

So predestination doesn't impede free will. Free will is a loose term, as the Bible describes us as either slaves to sin or slaves to Christ.

Romans 6:

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. ¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.¹⁹ I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So it is very clear that God first must change our souls to respond to the Gospel. He, in His grace, renews and recreates our spiritual state to not only be ABLE to respond to Him, but also to WANT to. No one is forced, kicking and screaming, into the Kingdom of God. All who confess Jesus is Lord and Savior, all who desire God, and who desire to do His will in their every day lives are counted as His elect. In other words, if we are a true Christian, we are God's chosen people! Praise God for His glorious grace! For if we truly examine ourselves, how could we ever claim to be worthy of that gift that He has bestowed upon us!

Does the doctrine of predestination take away our responsibility to witness to the world? God forbid! On the contrary, it should compel us to witness and share our faith even more. Knowing that God works through His Word to seek and save, and knowing that the elect of God are still throughout the world, this knowledge should compel and drive us even more! For while we do not know who the elect are, God does...and our witness is an act of faith in God through Christ. We know we do not know who the elect are...but if we love God in our regenerated state of spiritual life...how can we keep from proclaiming what the Lord has done in us?

Now let us fall before the majesty of our great God, acknowledging our faults, and praying that He will make us ever more conscious of them. May this lead us to a right repentance, and make us grow and increase in faith, as true sacrifices to Him. Since our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our redemption, let us also seek to dedicate ourselves fully to Him. May we be led by Him to persevere, so that in life and in death we seek no other contentment or rest than to acquiesce in His good will. May we glory in nothing other than the salvation which He has purchased for us. May this grace not only be granted to us, but to all peoples and nations on earth.

How Then, Shall We Live? Part 1

1 Peter 2: 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.


Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ;

Do we know who we are? Do we realize what we have come from? Do we understand what being a Christian means? Do we care?

There is a very sad trend emerging in the world today. This trend has shamed the church, shamed the body of Christ, and brought shame to the name of God. It has exposed false faith, it has satisfied many a clergy who accept words rather than deeds, and it has proven Jesus’ words true, that not everyone who calls Him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

This trend is making a distinction between Christian living as a separate aspect of life, and accepting that calling ourselves a Christian is more than what we are, it’s a matter of who we are.

“I just can’t get into it.” “I’m a Christian, but I don’t see the need to live it.” These are just two of the statements that many people who know the knowledge of Christianity, but refuse to surrender to it, state. This is a false faith. This is not saving faith. Many people find the Christian life hard at times, but true faith sees a joy and peace that floods our being and enables us to see hope through God in every situation. True faith fills us with a desire for obedience. True faith gives us love for our fellow Christians and gives us a desire to fellowship with them. In other words, true faith changes who we are.

Let’s examine the passage above. In his first epistle, Peter makes no bones about who we are if we profess Christ as Lord. We are a chosen people. We are royalty. We comprise a separate, holy nation. We have been called out of this world, remade into a new person, and transformed into Christians by God’s grace and through His grace, we are renewed by His mercy. We cannot remain the same if we are true Christians. His mercy opens the floodgates of His love, and that love regenerates us into the holy people of His choosing, pulled out of the world to be separate. How can we…why do we want to remain in the sludge of our sin if we proclaim something as glorious as Christ as Lord?

The idea that we can call Jesus Savior but ignore Him as Lord is a very popular falsehood. Jesus is the ultimate Authority figure. In Matthew 28, He made it clear that after His death and resurrection, all authority on earth and in heaven has been given to Him. Too many people ignore the fact that the Savior is also the Judge. Peter, in his epistle, is reminding us that without Christ, we are useless. We must remember that we have been reconciled with God because He sought that reconciliation first. Apart from God’s mercy in Christ crucified, we remain separated from God, sentenced to eternal judgment, and that God looks upon us as enemies. He is King, and He will regard any enemies to His holy kingdom with divine hatred. As His enemies, we are only objects of His wrath, and every day we remain His enemies we store up more wrath against us in that great and terrible Day of Judgment. On that Day, the excuse, “I just couldn’t get into it”, simply will not save anyone. If one professes to be a Christian, it is all or nothing. We are either new people, humbled and awed by Christ’s immense sacrifice, or we are not. If someone who “just can’t get into it” has a hard time understanding and living a holy life, could it be that it’s hard because they are trying to be someone they aren’t? Peter later says that eventually, the true nature will shine through what we do. He puts it very directly, “A dog always returns to its vomit.”

Isn’t that a sobering fact? If we don’t want to give our all to Christ, it might mean that we aren’t saved to begin with! Have we examined ourselves to see if that’s the case? It is a very true fact that even if we believe we’re saved, we may not be. TRUE faith yields fruit. Being a true Christian is far more than abstaining from drunkenness and sinful living. Even the unsaved, for a time, can live what appears to be on the surface a Christian life. Simply obeying does not save us. Obedience means we can read. It doesn’t make us holy. In fact, if we try to rely on obedience to save us, we condemn ourselves farther. Anyone who tries to live by the law on its own only increases their guilt with every transgression of that law. Obedience is worth much as fruit of our salvation. Obedience and desire to follow the moral law is a fruit of salvation, as an act of gratitude. If the fruit of gratitude is not in us, how do we call ourselves separated from the world? Let me reiterate what Peter said…we are a CHOSEN PEOPLE, called out of darkness to be in God’s light. This dying, sinful world is in darkness. We all stood to be destroyed in the final day if not for God’s reconciling us to Himself. We all deserve to be cast into hell this very second, with none to deliver. Our sins are so heinous, so grievous, so utterly an affront to His holiness, there could be none to protest if God defended His holiness by utterly destroying all of us this very second.

The recognition of that horrific nature of our sin is also a sign of the fruit of salvation. If we remain unsaved, our sins don’t bother us. We know nothing of righteousness in an unregenerate state…so we will not be bothered by the sin we naturally have in our natural state. All human beings are born in sin, and all human beings live in darkness unless God resurrects the dead soul from its sinful condition and regenerates us to be His chosen elect. He makes us holy as Christ’s righteousness and perfect obedience is credited to us, so Christ’s perfection makes us perfect in God’s eyes. We may still sin, but true salvation causes us to despise our sin, and grieve over it. True gratitude lives in the Christian’s heart, and that true gratitude leads us away from sin, not towards it. The condition of the heart can be seen by what it gravitates towards. The sinful nature will never truly be dead until we enter glory; but how we react towards that sin that shows who we are. We will always suffer temptation for certain areas of our lives as Christians. In this world, to avoid that aspect is impossible. It’s what we do when temptation comes that sets us apart from the unbelieving world.

God set us apart to show His grace in action, to glorify Him. He called us into life, and for that, our praise must never stop. The Lord is enthroned on the praises of His elect, and as true Christians, we love to sing God’s praises! Praise for Almighty God for His redeeming mercy! Praise for not withholding His only Son but instead giving Him up for the world…praise to the Lord, the Almighty! There is no word, no word at all, that could properly thank Him for the salvation through Christ crucified…yet we must worship, for our new nature is called to such. Christians and worship are twinned together, for being a Christian means our every minute of every day is to be an act of worship.

Do we remember who we were before we proclaimed Christ as Lord? Do we take our faith for granted? Do we have faith at all? Are we mistaking head knowledge for faith? There is no “getting into it” if our faith is saving faith of grace. There is struggle, but always hope, there is persecution but always love, there is temptation but always a means of escape. If we claim to be a Christian but want no part of giving our all to surrender, we are liars. There is a vast difference between struggling with doing what is right, but doing it anyway, and simply not doing it. If we know the good we ought to do, and abstain from doing it, we sin.

Is the desire to live holy lives befitting God’s chosen royal family in your heart? Do you desire to be shining examples of God’s grace to this lost world, or do you not care at all of the example you are setting in the world? Do you not care that your actions bring shame to the name of Jesus, or do you eagerly seek to honor Him and His church in your every day lives? Being God’s elect is not a hobby or sideshow. It’s not separate from our daily living. We, as God’s chosen, as Christians, as followers of Christ and recipients of His grace, are called to give our all to Christ, and recognize that His death and resurrection were for us. We owe God a debt we cannot repay…and yet we dare treat His grace as common? We make excuses for not submitting to His Authority? How do we be so arrogant as to claim His name as a Christian, then act as though His death, His sacrifice, is common? My friends, if you find yourselves claiming to be a Christian yet do not desire to surrender all to Christ, do not desire His House, His people, His presence, and wantonly throw yourselves into sinful companionship and situations without any thought to how people perceive Christ in you…you are treating His grace as common.

We will not escape sin as long as we are on this sinful world. But what are our motivations? Moreso than our actions, our motivations mark the conditions of our faith. God will judge our motivations. For the motivations come from our hearts, and the heart will reflect our faith’s conditions. If we are motivated to follow God with all our being, our faith will show our hearts to be regenerate and transformed. If our motivations are to please ourselves, our hearts are mired in sin. If we desire sin, yet say we love God, we are liars, for no one of God can desire sin and have a strong faith. We cannot love the Holy One of Israel, and desire that which grieves the One we claim to love. Certainly, we will struggle. Certainly, we will be faced with overwhelming temptations, and certainly, we will give in, often more than we like. There is no discounting that the most ardent Christians have weaknesses of the flesh that the evil one knows how to exploit. But we also know that “not getting into it” is no excuse. If we are Christians, if the Holy Spirit lives within us, if we are awed by God’s amazing grace through Christ crucified, we will follow the command given to us by Jesus Himself…to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. There is no room for half-faith, for half-faith is no faith at all.

Guard yourselves! We all have weaknesses. Take heed, lest we fall in our arrogance! Do not compromise! If you know the areas of weakness, avoid them! Surround yourselves with people who encourage Christian living, and do not make unbelievers your closest friends. Do everything to make sure your faith shines in this dark world, and bring the kingdom of God into the occupied territory of the devil! Submit to the authority of Jesus Christ, and submit to His church. Live such different lives before the unbelievers, that you are found to be beyond reproach, and bring glory to God in this hostile world.

Are you forsaking your call to be holy and separate? Be honest with yourselves. Do you glorify Christ through your every day living, by behaving in such a way befitting our status as a royal people? Or do you desire your own way, do you ignore those who use Scripture to show you the error of your ways? Do you blend in with the world that hates the Christ you claim to follow, or do you stand out? Look in the Biblical mirror…and take an honest assessment. True faith loves to submit before God in entirety, even when we can’t do it perfectly.

Do you have true faith? Test it in the backdrop of Scripture. If we hope to be a true believer and keep our sinful nature with no change, if we don’t show any regard to our sin, if we are not in awe of Christ’s awesome sacrifice, it’s time to drop to our knees, ask God’s forgiveness for our arrogance, and recommit our lives to the Lord and Giver of life. If we hope to be a hypocrite, we are hopeless.

Now therefore, let us cast ourselves down before the majesty of our good God with acknowledgement of our sins, praying Him to make us perceive them more and more, and that the same may cause us to have such a dislike of ourselves that we may earnestly and sincerely seek to give ourselves wholly to our Lord Jesus Christ. And since He has called us already to Him by His gospel, let us fashion ourselves accordingly, renouncing all superstitions and assuring ourselves that all that we can ever imagine to bring us to the kingdom of heaven are but deceits of Satan, and that it is enough for us to have Jesus Christ alone to make our recourse to; that just as it was the Father’s will to lift Him on high in order that all men should look to Him, so also we may have our eyes fastened upon Him and apply our whole minds to Him in such a way that we may have no other way or preparation than by Him alone; nor swerve one way or another, but when we are once brought into the right way, keep on continually towards our aim until we are fully come to perfection. That it may please Him to grant this grace, not only to us, but also to all people. Amen.

Sealed Forever

Grace and peace to all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

In this entry, we will look at and destroy the myths surrounding eternal security. There are many who would break in and steal away our eternal comfort in Christ by claiming that somehow, by our own actions, we could undo that which Almighty God has decreed. Many people claim that eternal security couldn't be real, that even though the Lord Jesus declared His work "FINISHED", we could still somehow, in some way, affect our own eternal destiny by our own works. This is as ridiculous as claiming we could choose Christ in our dead, shackled by sin state.

My friends, the Bible is full of references to the fact that who God saves will not lose that salvation. Granted, to the human, finite mind, it could appear that way. We all have known many people who seemed to be on fire for Christ, yet in the end, appeared to have fallen away from Him completely. But God knows the heart and soul. It is possible to be intellectually saved, but not saved by faith. Listen to people when they give their testimonies. A true testimony of faith should include the fact that they are aware God saved them from their sins through His grace. A testimony should not be about the speaker, but what God has done for that speaker. The fact through Scripture remains...if one is truly saved, they will not and cannot lose that salvation that God has so graciously given them.

When people come to know Christ as their Savior, they are brought into a relationship with God that guarantees their eternal security. Jude 1: 24 declares, "To Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy." God's power is able to keep the believer from falling. It is up to Him, not us, to present us before His glorious presence. Our eternal security is a result of God keeping us, not us maintaining our own salvation.

The Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed, "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28-29b). Both Jesus and the Father have us firmly grasped in their hand. Who could possibly separate us from the grip of both the Father and the Son?

Ephesians 4:30 tells us that believers are "sealed for the day of redemption." If believers did not have eternal security, the sealing could not truly be unto the day of redemption, but only to the day of sinning, apostasy, or disbelief. John 3:15-16 tells us that whoever believes in Jesus Christ will "have eternal life." If a person were to be promised eternal life, but then have it taken away, it was never "eternal" to begin with. If eternal security is not true, the promises of eternal life in the Bible would be in error.

The most powerful argument for eternal security is Romans 8:38-39, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Our eternal security is based on God's love for those whom He has redeemed. Our eternal security is purchased by Christ, promised by the Father, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Many people think that eternal security gives people a license to sin. But consider this: if salvation results in a brand new creation in Christ, these people with new natures will not seek out sin. Those TRULY saved in Christ will by no means live perfectly, but neither will they sin wantonly, brazenly, without remorse. They will hate the sin that has corrupted absolutely the human race, and seek to war against it...not from a position of desperation, but from a position of victory. God the Son won the victory over death and sin and the devil on the cross through His death and resurrection. Through God's love set upon us in Christ, HE will guide us through the storms, HE will protect us til the end of history, HE will preserve us for eternity. The fools who teach that we can attain such lofty goals on our power are teaching a false gospel...it is God who justifies, God who saves, and God who preserves. What other response have we, then to fall on our faces before our good God, and praise Him who undeservedly saved us? We do not deserve His salvation, let alone His preservation. What WE deserve is eternal punishment in hell, separated from our God forever and ever. What He has granted is an adoption into His holy family, where we, through the merits of Christ and Christ alone, may be welcomed into His heavenly, glorious presence, and enjoy His glory forever and ever.

The bottom line about the "license to sin" objection...one cannot be truly saved and still be carnal, loving sin more than God. As our Lord Jesus Christ said, we will know them by their fruits. If such as these continue their carnal ways to their death, or if they fall away from the faith and never return, the bigger question is, "Were they saved to begin with?" No one God has chosen will ever be lost.

Now let us fall before the majesty of our great God, acknowledging our sins, and asking that He would make us increasingly aware of them, that we may hate them more and more, and grow in repentance (a grace that we need to exercise all our lives). May we learn so to magnify His grace, as it is shown to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might be completely taken up with it; and may we not only do so with our lips, but place our entire trust in Him. May we grow in that trust until we are gathered up into our eternal home, where we shall receive faith’s reward. May He not only grant this grace to us, but to all peoples.

The Last Enemy...

I think everyone has had that phone call. The one that informs us that someone we know has died. Many people try to doctor it up..."passed away." "Moved on." "Passed on." But in reality...they have died.

The Bible describes death as an enemy, not a natural part of life. And it's easy to see why. Death robs us. It sneaks into our lives and overturns our very existence. Death takes away. It seems final. When the time comes to slip from this world to the next, we who are left behind must stand and watch...we cannot make that journey with them. It is a journey we must all make alone.

But if death is not a natural part of life, where did death come from? The answer can be found at the beginning of the Bible, with Adam and Eve. God had given them a command...not to eat of a certain tree. If they did, He said, they would surely die.

We all know what happened. They were tempted, chose to disobey, and as a result, condemned the entire human race to both physical and spiritual death. Death is the result of sin. God has decreed that where there is sin, there is death. God's original creation never had death created within its design. It was the choice of mankind that introduced death and corruption to what God had declared "good." And before sin, God's creation was perfect. The end result of sin was total depravity of the human race, leading to death and separation from God.

Death is an enemy. It steals life from creation and loved ones from family and friends. It destroys joy and leaves in its wake a storm of tears, anger, and confusion. Grief is one of the single worst feelings any human being can feel...because the sting of death is irreversible this side of heaven. No matter what is done or said in support, no human action can ever bring back the deceased. Death's sting leaves us gasping for breath, falling in a pit that has anguish for air, breathing in sorrows that seem to never end. Death, for all intents and purposes, leaves us hopeless. It has stolen from us, and reminds us that we too will have to make that final journey. It is a stark reminder of our own mortality.

Death is also the great equalizer. It makes no distinction between rich and poor, young or old, nationality, religion, or background. No one can ever boast that they are superior to another because in the final analysis, we are all sinners, and all sinners die. Death wipes away arrogance, because one day, we will all suffer the same.

So what hope is there, if we are all sinners, and God has decreed that where there is sin, there is death? We have established that death has entered the world, and we are the target. Our deaths are not going to be postponed...no one dies before or after their time. It is the appointment no one will be late for.

Death leads to judgment. The Bible says everyone will die once...and then face God's judgment. Nothing short of perfection will withstand His wrath. God is horribly angry at sin. His very nature demands that we as sinners be punished for the disobedience we so willingly commit every day. On the day of judgment, we will stand before God...ALONE...while we give account of every word, thought, and deed. And this examination will prove one thing to every human being: in the heavenly courts, before the Judge of all mankind, we are guilty. God's justice is perfect. No one will be undeservedly punished. And we all deserve God's wrath as the sinners we are.

BUT there is hope! Praise be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! God knew we couldn't satisfy His demands in our fallen state (we must remember, God presents His Word to us as fallen human beings, not as sinless people), so while He set the penalty for sin, He also became flesh in the form of Jesus Christ (God the Son in the Trinity), and fulfilled EVERY demand of God's Law. Jesus then went to the cross and took upon Himself the sins of every person who would come to know the Lord Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives. Christ became sin for us, and God poured out His wrath upon His own Son, punishing our sins to the fullest! Every sin...past, present, future...has been completely paid for in Christ, and so what was the full sting of death (physical AND spiritual) has become a mere shadow. While Christians may still die physically, we no longer will face the terrifying separation from God that awaits all sinners. We do not receive this reward because WE deserve it...but because God has promised Christ that all who believe in Christ will never perish but have eternal life. Jesus' perfect life is credited to us as righteousness, and we receive a pardon because Jesus paid the price in our place. It is NOT our merit that God sees when He looks upon us as Christians...it is the merit of Christ. What an indescribable gift! The Judge has decreed the sentence...and then made Himself the subject of that sentence! Through Christ, we are reconciled with God, and the fear of punishment is replaced with an awe and desire to serve Him in love! This is amazing love! This is amazing grace! Jesus is the One whom death could not keep...and because He has conquered death, we need not fear life after death...if we trust the Lord Jesus Christ's work on the cross, and rest in His finished work, we will never be separated from God. The greatest joy of all will be bestowed upon us undeserving sinners when we slip from this life into the next...we will see God face to face. Our faith will become sight, and we will be in the glorious presence of the Lord forever!

Death still prowls. Death still attempts to rob us and threaten us. But through Christ, death has lost its eternal sting and one day...one glorious day...one indescribable day...Jesus will return. On that day, death will be defeated and destroyed...and we will never suffer death or its effects again. Jesus Christ is death's conqueror...through Him, one day, death will 100% be crushed to death!

And so, even though we mourn the passing of loved ones, even though we grieve...for those whom are found in Christ Jesus, who have been given the grace to repent of their sins and trust Christ for their salvation...we know death signals the end of one life and the beginning of another...a new life, found in Christ our Savior, and lived in the presence of God forever!

Heavenly Father, even now there are millions in this world mourning those death has taken away. Give them...and us...Your peace. Grant us Your life giving grace, so that we may be found deeper in Christ Jesus, and grant those who have not as of yet known Christ the special saving faith that will open their eyes to their sin, bring them to repentance, and bring them into Your family through Christ Jesus. You are the God of all...even death...and we long for the day Christ comes again to eradicate death once and for all, and all who rest in Your Son will worship You face to face, forever and ever. Help us to worship and adore You in spirit and in truth.

In Jesus' name,

Amen

Welcome to Free Grace!

Blessings to everyone!

Grace and peace to all readers from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit! This is the first ever posting of Free Grace Christian Fellowship, so I want to take this first post to outline what it is this ministry believes!

We believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. We believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to hell.

On the third day, He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven, where He is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

We believe in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the holy invisible church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. We believe that the Bible is, from cover to cover, the complete, infallible Word of God, divinely inspired and recorded faithfully through the ages. It contains the complete wisdom and commandments of God, and the revelation of Jesus Christ, and all we need to know for salvation is contained in its pages.

I could write 20 pages in detail about what we believe. Know this: There is no condemnation now for those who have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and rely on His finished work on the cross for our salvation. Christ is, was, and always will be the 100% Savior, and any obedience is born of love for the Triune God. Obedience is a RESPONSE to God's grace through Christ...not a REQUIREMENT. We are not good enough on our own, no matter how hard we try...we are only saved through Christ, who leads us to a renewing of our souls, a faith that leads to repentance!

I will do my best to post something as often as I can. I will post varying things, from sermons to devotions and some every day thoughts. It is my prayer that together, regardless of where we may be in the world, we can worship and honor Christ, the Lord of lords and King of kings!