Only the Richteousness of Christ

Here is an amazing song written by a friend of mine:

ONLY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS
Of CHRIST
A song of Sonship, K. Emborsky, Romans, 2011

1.There is no deed my hands have done  
No human effort that’s enough  
No right living have I attained  
To bring me hope for righteousness  
For when I trust in my will to obey  
Then I have fallen away from grace  
There is no room left in my heart  
For Jesus’ finished work on the cross
 
(chorus)  
There is nothing else  
There is only Jesus
Only the righteousness of Christ
There’s only the blood to justify
To cover my sin before the Divine  
And only the Spirit  
Brings me to surrender  
There is nothing else-only Jesus  
Only the righteousness of Christ

2.So by the Spirit I’ll lay down  
All the resolve I think I’ve found  
All of my zeal to do what’s right  
Will never stand in the presence of Christ  
Only by faith that comes from God  
And by believing in His Son
I will accept the gift He gives  
And let my holiness come from Him

Robots

I have heard the argument from those who disagree with Calvinism, that they feel like this notion of God choosing us, makes us into robots, and they don't believe that God would do that. This statement, however, shows a misunderstanding of what Calvinism is, because there is no way that one would use this argument if they understood the premises of Calvinism. This statement becomes a straw man in an attempts to knock down a notion they feel uncomfortable with.


On the contrary from making us robots, Calvinism states that God so loved us that He came to us when we were enemies, enslaved, and dead, or you might say we were lifeless, our choices were enslaved to sin, and we were in some ways "robotic" in our nature. God came to us in this state and gave us life making a new creature, through His spoken word. Someone who is alive. So on the contrary of making us "robotic", God has taken the believer from death into an abundant, joyous life, that is fully animated, and full of intense love and desire and choice to be together. A true Calvinist is not a stoic, but a die hard romantic.


I can say this my choice for God was real, and it is more free than the choices made as an unbeliever.

All I Have is Christ

RC Sproul The Total Sovereignty of God

Even though we chose to reject God, He chose us. What amazing love!

How do we go from being an enemy of God, hating God, and murdering Christ to loving God? What so drastically changes our hearts? . . . Grace alone.

1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience . . . . 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. – Ephesians 2:1-10

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
--1Corithians 1:30,31

Why we choose to sin. -- John Calvin

...we allow that man has choice and that it is self-determined, so that if he does anything evil, it should be imputed to him and to his own voluntary choosing. We do away with coercion and force, because this contradicts the nature of the will and cannot coexist with it. We deny that choice is free, because through man's innate wickedness it is of necessity driven to what is evil and cannot seek anything but evil. And from this it is possible to deduce what a great difference there is between necessity and coercion. For we do not say that man is dragged unwillingly into sinning, but that because his will is corrupt he is held captive under the yoke of sin and therefore of necessity will in an evil way. For where there is bondage, there is necessity. But it makes a great difference whether the bondage is voluntary or coerced. We locate the necessity to sin precisely in corruption of the will, from which follows that it is self-determined.
 

--John Calvin from Bondage and Liberation of the Will, pg. 69-70

The significance of the name Sovereign Grace - C.J. Mahaney

Kirk Cameron Interviews John MacArthur

"How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!"

I thought about titling this: Why Calvinists evangelize?

Psalm 33:4-9
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
he puts the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.

2 Peter 3:5
For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,

Hebrews 11:3
By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

Here is what is significant. God the heavens and earth with His spoken word. God did this for a reason. The artist, the God who could have created the universe by any means, chose purposely and deliberately to use the spoken word. And even though the world sees this as foolish, by faith we know this to be true, because the word of the Lord is upright. God made this choice to create the worlds by His word, because He was going to use the same means to create something more significant and more difficult with the spoken word – new life. It is the foolishness of the preaching of the word that God uses to bring a dead man’s soul to life. And this word, this gospel, has power. This is why we preach the Gospel. Because the word of the Lord has power and will not return to Him void. When God says, “Let there be light”. There is light.

There is another significance to this. Christ is the Word. And just as all created things were made through him and are sustained by Him. So it is the same with this new life.

Romans 10:14-17
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

What is our only comfort in life and death?

Heidelberg Catechism Question 1. What is thy only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

Smelly Dead

When I see the druggie, the alcoholic, the person who is down and out, the person steeped in sexual immorality, the poor, the homeless, the sick, the dying, the leper, the only difference between this guy and them is the grace of God. I can't stand aloft and feel like somehow I am here because I made a better choice. I don't have it in me to make a better choice. I was dead, smelly dead, in my trespasses, an enemy of God, so horribly lost that it took Jesus dieing on the cross and Christ bearing the vileness of my sin, so vile that it caused Him to sweat blood. No, I am no better than the worst. And I am not here because I made a better decision. I am here because of Christ. It was Christ who was willing to take on the depths of my sin, to become vile. And it was His grace and the strength of His power that reached down to my dead and vile heart and gave me life from the dead. And I have to believe that that grace which is big enough for me is big enough for them. I once was one of them and so I long for them to come into the Kingdom. I know His grace reaches down to the worst of who we are and He can give life even to us, the most smelly of the dead.

If God is so powerful and so good, why do bad things happen?

failed

I have fallen and failed on so many levels in my life, lately. I hope those around me can forgive me. Where is pride? I have nothing I can boast in. I can try to pick myself up and strive to be the man I want to be. Try to falsely prove that I have worth in of myself. Or I can fall into my Lord's arms, into the arms of the only one worthy of praise.

O God, let the sweetness, of your Honesty, Confrontation, Discipline, Truth, and Healing come over me. Let your Love bring out Your heart in me. Let me become less and you become more.

"Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me."

The best plan

I don't believe that God choses the second best plan. And He has more than earned my trust. And so I can let go of my dreams for His.

Gospel for the Believer Devotionals

Devotional Readings:

Day 1: The Gospel is for the sinner

Day 2: The Gospel for the sinner, pt 2

Day 3: The Cross must become bigger

Day 4: The Romance of God – God’s pursuit

Day 5: The Romance of God – God’s pursuit, pt 2

Day 6: Its effect on our lives

Day 7: Its effect on our lives – Beholding Him

Day 8: Its effect on our lives – Washed in the Word

Day 9: Its effect on our lives – The Fight

Day 10: To Him alone be the Glory

Adoption

the kind intention of His will

10And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." 13Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." 14What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." 16So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

“16So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

Paul associates this verse and concept with God’s name. Paul refers to Exodus 33:19 which says, “And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion’." Whatever we think about this verse, when Paul associates this with God’s name, it forces us to take this scripture seriously. I hear more people saying what they think or feel, instead of taking this scripture seriously and trying to come to grips with what it is saying. We can’t shy away from it because we are afraid. Paul won’t let us. Maybe you can show me, through the scriptures that it means something different than what I think, but you can’t come to this scripture and tell me that you do not believe it because of how you feel or what you think. And one of the things we surely cannot do is accuse God of being unjust or “making robots”. Paul is very clear about that. Paul writes, “19You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ 20On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it?”

We can ignore scripture or we can face it like men, believing and trusting God like a child, knowing that what He has to say is good for us. And His purposes in this passage are kind, gentle and good. Read with me, Ephesians 1:3-8; “3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight”

My concern here is not to convince us of a doctrine, but to urge us to have trust in God’s word which is faithful. Instead of running from these scriptures or avoiding it because we do not like it, we must become like children who are not afraid to come close and hear the heart of God. Let the scriptures challenge you and reveal who God is and believe.

Gospel

Security in Him

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified"

Our security is not based on what we have done but instead on what God has done. He secures our salvation from first to last.