Jeff Ling

“All inadequate doctrines of the atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and man. If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to his, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it. When, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God, and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely ‘hell–deserving sinners’, then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.”

— John Stott
The Cross of Christ

It is God who justifies. (Romans 8:33)

Behold the eternal security of the weakest believer in Jesus. The act of justification, once passed under the great seal of the resurrection of Christ, God can never revoke without denying Himself. Here is our safety. Here is the ground of our dauntless challenge, ‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies.’ What can I need more? What more can I ask?

If God, the God of spotless purity, the God of inflexible righteousness, justifies me, ‘who is he that condemns?’ Sin may condemn, but it is God that justifies! The law may alarm, but it is God that justifies! Satan may accuse, but it is God that justifies! Death may terrify, but it is God that justifies! ‘If GOD is for us, who can be against us?’ Who will dare condemn the soul whom He justifies?

How gloriously will this truth shine forth in the great day of judgment! Every accuser will then be dumb. Every tongue will then be silent. Nothing shall be laid to the charge of God’s elect. GOD Himself shall pronounce them fully, and forever justified: ‘And those He justifies, He also glorifies.’

– Octavius Winslow, Morning Thoughts

This man keeps rocking my world with his insightful reflections on God’s grace. This piece is outstanding. Be sure to visit the Octavius Winslow website for info and links to resources.

“You are complete in Him.” Colossians 2:10

Here is a truth, the vastness of which is only equaled by its unspeakable preciousness. The Lord Jesus is the life of our acceptance with God. We stand as believers in the righteousness of a living Head. Within the veil He has entered, “now to appear in the presence of God for us,” presenting all His people each moment complete in Himself. It is a present justification. “You are complete in Him,” “accepted in the Beloved,” “justified from all things.”

Perfection in himself the enlightened soul utterly repudiates. Completeness in anything that he is, or has done, he totally rejects. Incomplete his deepest repentance- incomplete his strongest faith- incomplete his best obedience- incomplete his most costly sacrifice- low in the lowest dust does he lay himself. Too wretched he cannot think himself- too little he cannot be in his own eyes. Language fails to express the deep self-loathing and sin-abhorrence of his soul.

But lo! a voice is heard- oh, it falls upon his ear like the music of the spheres- “You are complete in Him.” In one moment all is peace. The believing soul ceases from his works- the weary spirit enters into rest, because, believing, it enters into Jesus. In Christ he now stands complete. His pardon complete- his justification complete- his adoption complete- his whole person complete before a holy God! Is not this a vast truth? and is it not a glorious one? Where is the doctrine that exceeds it? Where is the declaration that has in it such life as this?

Dear reader, it may be you have long been looking at yourself for some one thing complete. Something- in your judgment you may reject the thought, yet in your heart there is that principle which has been looking for something in yourself to commend you to God- something to make you more acceptable to, more welcomed by, Him.

But behold where your completeness is found- in, and solely in, Christ. Oh precious truth! A poor, vile sinner, standing before a holy God, complete in righteousness! the object of His infinite love and delight, over whom He rejoices with singing.

Oh, how divine, how finished, how glorious must that righteousness be, which so covers your soul as to present you before a God of immaculate purity, “without a spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing!”

“The cross insists on our self-humiliation; it insists that we recognize how weak, how lost, how hopeless we are, which is hard for all of us to swallow. Paul says the only hope is that Jesus came that he might give us a righteousness that we would never have in or accomplish for ourselves. Paul declares that his hope is to be found in Christ, ‘not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith’ (Phil. 3:9). That is our hope. That is our glory. That is our confession. Christ’s righteousness, not my own, and if I want to add to Christ’s righteousness, then I have offended him. I am offended to think he had to do it all there is nothing that I have to do.”

- W. Robert Godfrey, in Precious Blood: The Atoning Work of Christ ed. Richard D. Phillips (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway Books, 2009), 92-93.

Thanks to Of First Importance

“. . . If it is true that where sin abounded grace has much more abounded, well then, ‘shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound yet further?’

First of all, let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel. Let me show you what I mean.

If a man preaches justification by works, no one would ever raise this question. If a man’s preaching is, ‘If you want to be Christians, and if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins, you must take up good works, and if you do so regularly and constantly, and do not fail to keep on at it, you will make yourselves Christians, you will reconcile yourselves to God and you will go to heaven’. Obviously a man who preaches in that strain would never be liable to this misunderstanding. Nobody would say to such a man, ‘Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’, because the man’s whole emphasis is just this, that if you go on sinning you are certain to be damned, and only if you stop sinning can you save yourselves. So that misunderstanding could never arise . . . . . .

Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome, but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther; indeed that was precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of Martin Luther. They said, ‘This man who was a priest has changed the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust’, and so on. ‘This man’, they said, ‘is an antinomian; and that is heresy.’ That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also brought George Whitfield two hundred years ago. It is the charge that formal dead Christianity – if there is such a thing – has always brought against this startling, staggering message, that God ‘justifies the ungodly’ . . .

That is my comment and it is a very important comment for preachers. I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure that you are really preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.” – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Today on Facebook I came across a post that referred to me as a “blind guide” based on a quote by Tim Keller I posted as my status. You can read that post here. Below is my response:

I am the “local pastor” or “blind guide” referred to in Bill’s article here. I appreciate the deference Bill but there’s no need to protect my identity. I have no “repentance” over the quote regardless that you consider it “un-biblical and very obviously so.” I did publish it fully cognizant of it’s inferences.

“Perhaps he either lacks discernment or his suppositions have rendered him blind.”

Well, I probably do lack some discernment. I wouldn’t trust anyone who claimed an infallible discernment. I do not believe my presuppositions have rendered me “blind.” What I find most remarkable is the attacks made on men who hold to a strong reformed tradition as if they were ignorant of repentance, and as Preston remarked above, turning “God into a deity whose is merely interested in legal transactions and not truly reforming the sinner from his self made horror – sin!”

(By the way Preston, if I have to be in a pit with anyone, I’ll go ahead and choose Piper, Dever, Lloyd-Jones, Packer, etc… At least they tend to be men who remain respectful of others who hold different views.)

To suggest such an understanding of grace by these men is to show a profound lack of interaction with their material and theological stance. You would think that these men only know Romans 5:17 – “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.” – but have never read Romans 6:1-2 – “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

The idea that these men have no concern for repentance, for holiness, for the character of Christ being formed in the believer, for healthy disciplines that lead to godliness would be laughable if it weren’t such a tragic misrepresentation.

My own view of God’s grace?

Titus 2:11-14…
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”

Sounds like transformed sinners to me! Bill, it would seem that our fundamental disagreement involves how grace acts upon the sinner for conversion. Don’t we have the same end in mind? Wouldn’t we both agree with the above scripture? I agree with you that repentance is involved in salvation – I simply believe that my heart was quickened by the Spirit to see that need and empower it’s possibility.

As to the quote from Keller:

“We do not have to make ourselves suffer in order to merit forgiveness. We simply receive the forgiveness earned by Christ. 1 John 1:8 says that God forgives us because He is ‘just.’ That is a remarkable statement. It would be unjust of God to ever deny us forgiveness, because Jesus earned our acceptance! In religion we earn our forgiveness with our repentance, but in the gospel we just receive it.” – Timothy Keller

I do not perceive for a moment that Keller is suggesting here a reception that is void of repentance or a call to transformation. I do perceive a great comfort in that God has declared me just based on Christ’s redemptive work. Therefore, since I am in Christ, it is keeping with God’s justice to forgive me as I stumble on the road to holiness. It would be unjust for God to condemn me now unless he is going to condemn the Lord Jesus. Yes, Jesus earned my acceptance, he redeemed me – “paid” the price of His precious blood on my behalf. Yes, my debt was paid – not withstanding your time/space approach that limits the omnipresent implications of the cross. I don’t for a moment believe that you, I or anyone can fully know, nor appreciate the full dimensions of what Christ’s death accomplished on the cross. To impose limits on it may be your prerogative. It is not mine.

All I know is that a true encounter with the gospel is transforming. I have been saved by the grace of God and I’m kept by the grace of God. The love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit is drawing me into a deeper desire for holiness and a growing longing for the new heavens and earth. I feel that I am “seeing” more clearly than ever.