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This week my Bible reading took me to the book of 1 Chronicles.
For many, these are the books that are difficult to read, particularly early in the morning. What is the purpose of these genealogies? is it really worth reading them? Don Carson provides helpful insight:
…biblical genealogies accomplish many things besides the obvious one of recording genealogical descent. If one were reading the Bible through, at this point the lists of names would serve, in part, as a review: the beginnings up to David, with 1 and 2 Chronicles taking the reader to the end of the active Davidic dynasty. The genealogy also sets out in brief compass some of the branches that can easily be lost to view in the tangle of reading the narratives themselves. How are Abraham's descendants tied to Noah? Abraham himself had children by three women: Hagar, Keturah, and Sarah. Where did they end up?
Of course, the genealogy does not aim to be comprehensive. It is heading toward Judah, toward the Davidic dynasty. And this is the point: There is movement and change, there are developments and fresh covenants, but from the beginning the Bible's story line has been a unified account heading toward the Davidic line, and ultimately toward 'great David's greater Son'…
When thinking about the permanence of salvation, two words are commonly used: security and assurance. While they are related terms, they are not the same thing.
John MacArthur summarizes the difference well:
Many people lack assurance because they do not understand that salvation is an utterly divine, totally sovereign operation. Assurance is built on the historical reality of what Jesus Christ accomplished. It is not a feeling without reason, and you will never have the subjective feeling of assurance until you comprehend the objective truth of the gospel.
In other words, if you are a genuine believer, you are secure, whether you have the feeling of assurance or not. On the other hand, it is also possible for someone to mistakenly assume personal assurance, when he is not actually secured (saved). Genuine assurance is the result of confidence in the finished work of Christ on the cross.
Yesterday I received a copy of John Piper's new book, The Future of Justification.
Is it important to write a 225-page book on the doctrine of justification? In his acknowledgments, Piper notes why it really is:
From the moment we believed until the last day of eternity God is 100 percent for us on this basis alone — the sin-bearing punishment of Christ, and the righteousness-providing obedience of Christ.
Which is another way of saying, "Christ is our life."
It is enough that no one can snatch a believer from the hand of Jesus Christ.
It is enough that no one can snatch a believer from the hand of God the Father.
It is enough that the Holy Spirit is given as a pledge (guarantee) of our salvation and inheritance.
Any one of those is enough to secure our salvation eternally. Yet all of these statements are true. The entire Godhead is working in unity and harmony to keep believers secure.
The Holy Spirit regenerates believers, lives in the believer, places and seals the believer into Christ's body.
The Father chose believers in the eternal past, and keeps us in eternal life.
Christ's death makes life possible, removed the wrath of God from believers, justified every believer, provided forgiveness, sanctifies the believer, is constantly interceding on behalf of the believer, and will present every believer without fault before Him.
And all that combines to make the believer in Jesus Christ secure — eternally secure.
In his recent book, The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever begins by asking the question, "why don't we evangelize?" Part of his answer is that we don't plan to evangelize. And to that he offers 12 steps to take to counteract that mindset:
- Pray (for opportunities)
- Plan (to put ourselves in positions to share the gospel)
- Accept (that this is our job)
- Understand (that not having the spiritual gift of evangelism doesn't mean we don't have the duty to evangelize)
- Be faithful (to share the gospel)
- Risk (by obeying, even when uncertain of the response)
- Prepare (by knowing the gospel…)
- Look (for opportunities)
- Love others (because you will give the gospel to those whom you love)
- Fear (God, who is our merciful redeemer and savior)
- Stop (blaming God and excusing ourselves on the basis of His sovereignty)
- Consider (what God has done for us in Christ)
Dwight Edwards was the pastor of Grace Bible Church in College Station, TX until he failed morally and resigned several years ago. In the great grace of God, repentance was wrought in his heart, as he recently shared in his testimony (search using his last name to find the audio).
What contributed to his failure? Lack of gratitude:
This, for me, has been very important. Cultivating a grateful spirit to the Lord is not important. It’s critical. It is so critical. If I had to pinpoint one thing where I would go back, is that somewhere in the craziness of my thinking I became angrier and angrier at God for what I thought He owed me, I thought He wasn’t giving me, and increasingly I lost gratitude and thankfulness for the immense blessings that were there and I just wasn’t seeing.…We either go through life grateful to God or angry at God…for me it’s a very short step when I stop being grateful to God for what I had to being angry at God for what I [thought] He wasn’t coming through with.…Romans 1 makes a lot more sense to me…“when they knew God they glorified Him not as God nor were thankful,” and then it’s just a slide right down into sin — that’s what happened to me.
As we approach the holiday of Thanksgiving, we do well to be intentional in cultivating gratitude because, 1) it is the fitting response to the recognition of God's work in our lives, and 2) it is difficult to sin when we are genuinely grateful.
(HT: Unashamed Workman)
