Category: Genesis to Revelation

  • O FOR A THOUSAND TONGUES TO SING

    Amazing Grace Charles Wesley, 1707–1788 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. (Psalm 150:6) Soon after their graduation from Oxford University, John and Charles Wesley decided to sail to America, the new world, to try to minister to the rough colonists under General Oglethorpe in Georgia and to evangelize the Indians.…

  • Morning & Evening

    The Christian, while in the world, is not to be of the world. He should be distinguished from it in the great object of his life. To him, “to live,” should be “Christ.” Whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, he should do all to God’s glory. You may lay up treasure; but…

  • Justification By Faith Alone (Part 11)

    Jonathan Edwards SECTION 4Answering Objections (Cont’d) Matthew 12:37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” It cannot be meant that men are accepted before God on the account of their words. God has told us nothing more plainly than that He looks at the heart. When…

  • Justification By Faith Alone (Part 10)

    Jonathan Edwards SECTION 4Answering Objections (Cont’d) PAUL CONFIRMS JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH ALONE The apostle Paul, in Romans 4, confirms the doctrine of justification by faith alone. When sin is rightfully confessed to God, there is always faith in that act. Confessing sin joined with despair, as did Judas, is not the confession for which the…

  • Justification By Faith Alone (Part 9)

    Jonathan Edwards SECTION 4Answering Objections (Cont’d) THE FOUNDATION OF FIRST ACCEPTANCE There is a vast difference between this doctrine of justification by faith alone, and what is supposed in the scheme of those who oppose it. The true doctrine lays the foundation of first acceptance with God and all actual salvation consequent upon it, wholly…

  • Justification By Faith Alone (Part 8)

    Jonathan Edwards PERSEVERANCE AFTER JUSTIFICATION (Cont’d) SECTION 4Answering Objections THE FIRST OBJECTION: We frequently find promises of eternal life and salvation (and sometimes of justification itself) suggested as a reward for virtue and obedience. Eternal life is promised to obedience. Romans 2:7, “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honor,…

  • Jutification By Faith Alone (Part 7)

    Jonathan Edwards CHRIST’S DEATH: ATONEMENT AND REDEMPTION (Cont’d) 3. I proceed now to the third and last assertion of this argument. I will show that this doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is utterly inconsistent with the doctrine of our being justified by our own virtue or sincere obedience. If God’s favor and a…

  • MAJESTY

    Amazing Grace Words and Music by Jack Hayford, 1934– O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1) There are many attributes of the Lord that should prompt our response of adoration and worship: His holiness, His power, His love … A very popular contemporary song by the Rev.…

  • Justified By Faith Alone (Part 6)

    Jonathan Edwards PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS AND THE LAWS OF GOD (Cont’d) To suppose that the only thing Christ does is to make atonement for us by suffering is to make Him our Savior, but only partially. It robs Him of half His glory as Savior. If so, all that He does is deliver us from hell;…

  • Justified By Faith Alone (Part 5)

    Jonathan Edwards ABSURDITY! (Cont’d) THIRD ARGUMENT: To suppose that we are justified by our own sincere obedience or any of our own virtue or goodness is to deny the gospel grace. We must reject any scheme of justification that manifestly diminishes the grace of God, because it is the declared design of God in the…