"Justification by faith alone on account of Christ's righteousness and the application of His work by the Spirit is not a doctrine original to Paul, but it is found in Habakkuk and Joel, the two prophets we will consider this month." — From Tabletalk magazine's daily Bible study, "Into the Word"
When we see the wicked prospering and God's people suffering, we may think the Lord is too slow in responding to the evil we are enduring. Yet God always works in His time, and He sometimes works in ways we do not expect. We can be sure that God has not forgotten us when He seems slow to respond, and we can know that even if He does the unexpected, it is for His glory and our good (Rom. 8:28). All this is true because He is sovereign in His goodness and holiness.
"[Our] forgiveness leads to a life of asking forgiveness, forgiving others, and trusting Christ along every day..." —Burk Parsons, editor of Tabletalk magazine
To ask questions of God in faith means asking Him with the willingness to be content with His answer or even if He never appears to give an answer at all. To ask questions of the Lord in a faithless manner is to demand an answer or to find certain answers unacceptable. As we wrestle with God in prayer, let us take care that we always come before Him in faith, trusting in His goodness and willing to be content with whatever He gives us.
"Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favour that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace." —Martin Luther
Those whom God regards as righteous do not find life by doing the right things, although doing the right things is important. Instead, they find life by trusting wholly in the Lord to act according to His character and keep His promises to His people.
Douglas Moo writes, “Justification by faith is the anthropological reflex of [that is, it reflects] Paul’s basic conviction that what God has done in Christ for sinful human beings is entirely a matter of grace” ("Romans," p. 90). We affirm that faith alone justifies because justification by faith alone is the only doctrine consistent with a salvation entirely grounded in God’s grace, based only on His work to save His people.
We can say with certainty that the one temptation that all people have in common is the temptation to believe we can make ourselves right with God, that our efforts, even when done with His help, are good enough to meet His standards. But the Lord does not ask us to be good enough; rather, we are to be perfect (Matt. 5:48). That means that only Christ’s perfect righteousness can suffice to put us in a right relationship with the Father. We must trust in Him and in Him alone.
"Spiritually speaking, we are corpses in the ground without Jesus. We can no more draw near to God than a corpse can summon the strength to get out of its grave. That is how bad off we are outside of Christ." —Guy Prentiss Waters from his article titled "Grace Alone" in the November 2012 issue of Tabletalk magazine
"Here is strong comfort for our fearful hearts: the God who has redeemed us through His particular sacrifice and effectual calling is the One to whom we belong in body and soul, and in life and in death. When the worst comes upon us, we can take our hearts to this God and hear him say: 'Fear not. I have purchased you.'" —Sean Michael Lucas from his weekend devotional titled "Fear Not" in the June 2013 issue of Tabletalk magazine
"Here is the bad news: In this world, we will have tribulation. But, thanks be to God, there is also good news: We can take heart, for our Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33). These are two firm facts about the life of Believers in this world." —Mark E. Ross from his weekend devotional titled "Future Deliverance" in the November 2012 issue of Tabletalk magazine
To us, it sometimes seems as if the wicked will prosper forever. However, since the Lord uses even the wicked to achieve His purposes, one day they will surely receive what is coming to them from His justice, and we will be vindicated. When we see evil men and women apparently succeeding, let us be reminded that such success is always temporary and that the Lord will set all things right in the end.
Good Bible commentaries help illumine God's word so that His people will have a better understanding of Scripture and are able to teach and preach it faithfully. http://bit.ly/12fPKH7
"We must understand the ancient context in which the Bible was written to appreciate fully its meaning. But we also have to hear the Bible as a Word from God addressed to His people today. Good commentators, therefore, not only explain the ancient situation of the text but the meaning of the text today." —Douglas Moo
When we are having difficulty trusting the Lord, it can be helpful for us to recount all the ways in which He has been faithful in the past. First, we should remember how God kept His promises to Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Ruth, David, Paul, and all of the other saints of ages past. Then, we should remember how the Lord has shown Himself faithful in our own lives. Recalling the blessings of the past can help give us hope for the blessings of the future.
Believing God when "the chips are down" is one of most difficult things that we will ever be called to do. Yet if we trust the Lord only when things are going well, then we do not really trust Him at all. When things are good, let us thank God for His blessings, but also ask Him to sustain our faith if we face real hardship. As we walk through dark times, let us ask Him to help us rejoice in Him and remember that He is our exceedingly great reward (Gen. 15:1).
In the book of Joel, the prophet describes a plague of locusts under the old covenant as a type of the day of the Lord (Joel 1:4, 15-16). Given the locust devastation that Joel describes, the final day of the Lord must be far worse for the impenitent. Let us preach the gospel to people who, if they remain impenitent, will suffer far more on that day than they can in any present disaster.
"Repentance takes place not only when a sinner is converted to Christ but every day of a believer’s life in Christ." —Burk Parsons
Because we are grafted into the tree of Israel by faith when we trust in Christ alone, we can be assured that we will enjoy the future glory promised to Israel. Even when things look darkest for the church, we know that the days to come will see victory for the Lord and His people. Let us not be discouraged when we fall or see the world crumbling around us, for God has promised to exalt His people Israel on that final day.
"After death, we will never have another chance to share Christ with one who can be saved from hell, to give a cup of water to the thirsty, to invest money to help the helpless and reach the lost, or to share our homes, clothes, and love with the poor and needy." —Randy Alcorn
"If we do not recognize that the Bible is the final arbiter of wisdom, then we will be led off into all manner of errors and misunderstandings. In short, we must sit under God’s Word and not stand in judgment over it." — From Tabletalk magazine's Bible study titled "How to Study the Bible"
"Let us always remember the consequences of the words that we speak. Those who hear the things we say never remain the same afterward. They are either edified or defiled. We easily forget what we say, but others do not. Our words stick on them like viruses." —Conrad Mbewe from his weekend devotional titled "We Must Watch What We Say" in the June 2013 issue of Tabletalk magazine
True repentance is confidently grounded in what God says about Himself in His Word, but it expresses itself in humility toward Him. We come before our Creator with confidence that He is faithful and just to forgive our sins (1 John 1:8-9), but we come humbly, refusing to believe or affirm that He owes us forgiveness. Every act of divine forgiveness is an instance of the Lord keeping His promises to pardon His people, but it is at the same time a forgiveness we never deserve.
We receive the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit by faith when we place our trust in Christ. Thus, no Christian should think that he is without the help of the Holy Spirit or that he needs to do something more to enjoy the Spirit's fullness. Have received the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit, listening to Him in His Word and using our gifts to serve others in the body of Christ. Are you exercising the spiritual gifts that the Lord has given to you?
The Lord protects us from His final wrath by clothing us in the perfect righteousness of Christ, which means He can pass over us in His eternal wrath and provide us the greatest restoration of all in the new heaven and earth. This is the only safety from His eternal judgment that God provides.
“We preachers do not preach hell enough, and we do not say enough about sin. We talk about the gospel and wonder why people are not interested in what we say. Of course they are not interested. No man is interested in a piece of good news unless he has the consciousness of needing it; no man is interested in an offer of salvation unless he knows that there is something from which he needs to be saved. It is quite useless to ask a man to adopt the Christian view of the gospel unless he first has the Christian view of sin." —J. Gresham Machen
In the church today, we are seeing a renewed emphasis on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, much of this emphasis is not on His work in the creation and redemption to bring order out of chaos. Wherever the Spirit is truly at work, we see order in worship and lives being conformed to the image of Christ, whose whole life was ordered toward the end of pleasing the Lord. Such things result from a true biblical emphasis on the person and work of the Spirit.
Dr. Sproul notes that the phrase born-again Christian is a redundancy. There is no such thing as a “non-born-again Christian” or a “born-again non-Christian,” because to be a Christian means to be born of the Spirit of God. We are not believers because we took the initiative to seek God; instead, the Lord sought us even when we hated Him, and by His Spirit granted us faith in His Son. Let us thank the Lord that He chose to grant us spiritual rebirth.
"Why does Christian love suffer long? It is because Christians imitate Christ, who imitates God the Father, and long-suffering is a chief characteristic of God." —R.C. Sproul from his article titled "Love That Is Patient and Kind" in the September 2012 issue of Tabletalk magazine
"If the wonders of God's sovereign power, mercy, and grace have not melted your heart, shaping in you a profound love for Him, you will never impress His glory on your children. If God's Word is not precious to you, it will not be important to your children. It all begins with being dazzled by God." —Tedd Tripp from his weekend devotional titled "Delighting in God" in the June 2013 issue of Tabletalk magazine
"The reason why death exists is because of sin (Rom. 5:12), and because of our sin, we will die. Death is used to point us to the only One who has the power over death and promises us resurrection. For those who trust in the finished work of Jesus and follow Him as Lord, there is life." —Scott Devor from his weekend devotional titled "Day of Death" in September 2012 issue of Tabletalk magazine
Today we speak of a comforter as one who comes to wipe our tears away and console us. While the Spirit does perform this work, that is not what we mean when we call Him our Comforter. Dr. R.C. Sproul notes that the Latin roots of the term Comforter (cum and forte) mean “with strength,” which accords well with the meaning of paraclete in Greek. The Holy Spirit is no mere shoulder for us to cry on but the sustainer of our faith and courage in the darkest of times.
When we separate the baptism of the Holy Spirit from conversion, we end up with second-class citizens in the kingdom of God. But as the Lord has poured out His Spirit on all His people, this is impossible. Christians may be at different points in their sanctification and level of Christian maturity, but no Christian lacks the Holy Spirit in his life. Let us be encouraged by this, for it means that we will certainly grow into conformity to Christ.
All Christians have the Spirit and gifts for ministry. We must use our gifts to edify one another, for the church cannot function well without our gifts just as our bodies cannot function in their fullness unless every organ is working. If we are not using our gifts to edify the body, we are sinning against the body. Let us all look for ways to use our gifts in the service of Christ and His church.
The standard for bearing fruit as we advance in sanctification is not perfection. Scripture tells us we will not walk in perfect holiness until we are glorified, and our need for perfection in order to stand before God unafraid is met in Christ and the imputation of His righteousness to us. But if His righteousness has been imputed to us, then His Spirit is sanctifying us. So, unless we see love, joy, peace, and every other spiritual fruit growing, however fitfully, in our lives, we are not Christians.
"The command to honour one's father and mother, when applied more broadly, means that we also are to respect all individuals who exercise God-ordained authority." —Nathan Finn from this article titled "Respecting Our Elders" in the March 2013 issue of Tabletalk magazine
"The Bible is a blessed book. It begins with blessing. It ends with blessing. It's about blessing. Even more, it is a blessing. But all of this begs a question: what exactly do we mean by the word blessing?" —John Tweeddale from his article "Blessing" in the November 2011 issue of Tabletalk magazine
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