Daily Devotional Readings
We delight and take comfort in the fact that the Lord our God has established for us a covenant ordered in all things and sure. Its blessings upon the Israel of God, the church of Christ, are innumerable (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8: 10; 10: 16-17). In our text, the apostle Paul tells us four things about the covenant of God's grace.
1. Jesus Christ is the central figure in this covenant. The covenant of, grace is an eternal agreement between the three persons of the sacred Trinity for the salvation of God's elect. But at the heart and foundation of the covenant is 'our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep'. According to the Father's command, the great Shepherd agreed to die for his sheep and assumed the responsibility of bringing them all safe to heaven. Because of Christ's covenant engagements on our behalf, the Lord God says of his elect, 'Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom!' God the Father says of his Son, 'I have laid help upon one that is mighty!'
2. This covenant was sealed and ratified by the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:15-17). Having fulfilled everything agreed upon in the covenant, the Son of God sealed it with his blood. Now the covenant has the force of a will or testament. The inheritance of the crucified Christ must be given to his redeemed, believing people.
3. This is a covenant that cannot be broken. It is everlasting, and therefore immutable. All who were given to Christ were redeemed by Christ, will come to Christ and will be raised again at the last day! God promised it. He swore by his holy name that he would do it! And it will be done!
4. God has so arranged things in the covenant of grace that he will get all the glory of it. His glory he will not share with another. He must have the glory exclusively. He must have the glory eternally. Let us give him the glory now. 'Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and thy truth's sake!'
A surety is, according to Webster, 'a person who makes himself responsible for another; one who makes himself liable for another's debts, defaults, or obligations'. This is just what our Lord Jesus Christ did in the covenant of grace. God the Father gave his elect people to Christ. He entrusted them to the care of his Son. And the Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily agreed to become responsible for their eternal welfare. By his own wilful choice, the Son of God agreed to become liable to God's holy law for the debts and obligations of his elect. He became the Surety of his people.
Therefore, in the fulness of time, he came into this world as a man, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Our blessed Surety lived in this world as the Representative of his people, fulfilling their obligations to God's law, establishing in their stead a perfect righteousness. Then he laid down his life as their Substitute at Calvary, paying in full the debt we owed to God's holy law and justice, by reason of our sin.
And now our Surety reigns on the right hand of the Majesty on high over all flesh for the purpose of giving eternal life to all who were given to him in the covenant of grace and redeemed by him at Calvary. It is his responsibility, as the Surety, to find his sheep, save his sheep, bring his sheep home, and to present every one of his sheep faultless and blameless before the presence of the divine glory. This he will do. Our Surety cannot fail. In the last day the Lord Jesus Christ will stand before his Father and say, 'Lo, I and the children whom thou hast given me; of them which thou gavest me have I lost none.' The number of those presented in perfect holiness before the throne of God will exactly tally with the number of those given to Christ as the Surety of the covenant in eternal election. He will open the Lamb's book of life, which was written before the world began, and pointing to their names one by one, he will say, 'Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost.'
There are some who flatly deny that baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament church, but their ultra-dispensationalism is so obviously contrary to the Scriptures that few people accept their doctrine. However, there are many who ignorantly receive three common, but fatal, errors about baptism. Such commonly received errors must be exposed.
1. Sacramentalism says that 'Baptism is a means of grace.' All Catholics and most Protestants teach that baptism has at least some saving efficacy. No one teaches salvation by baptism alone, but many teach that baptism is a means by which God's saving grace comes to the soul. The whole basis of infant sprinkling (it cannot rightly be called baptism) is that baptism does have some merit before God. Such doctrine is nowhere taught nor implied in the Word of God.
2. Landmarkism teaches that baptism can only be performed by the pastors of Landmark Baptist churches and that by being baptized into one of their churches a person secures for himself a higher rank, position and reward in heaven. In other words, they would have us to believe that while Christ is sufficient as our Saviour, we must earn the gifts of eternal glory by what we do. Though they would deny it, they make baptism a sacrament, 'a means of grace'. Such doctrine is fatal. Christ plus anything equals eternal damnation. Christ alone is our Saviour and our acceptance before God.
3. Ritualism simply goes through the motions of baptism as a matter of meaningless religious exercise, without any knowledge of its meaning.
In truth, baptism is the answer of a good conscience towards God. It is the believer's first act of obedience to Christ as Lord. And it is a public, symbolic confession of our faith in Christ. Baptism has no saving efficacy, but it is an essential point of the believer's obedience to Christ. Only unsaved rebels wilfully reject the commandments of the Lord. The commandment of God is 'Repent and be baptized every one of you' (Acts 2:38).
Without question, the most profound, most mysterious and most incomprehensible thing in all the world is the gospel of Christ. Who can explain how the eternal Son of God could come to this earth in human flesh, live in perfect righteousness as our Representative before God, have our sins imputed to him, suffer and die as our Substitute in full satisfaction of infinite justice, rise from the dead in accomplishment of our justification and reign in glory as the God-man Mediator to save his people? The fact of the gospel is incomprehensibly astonishing!
Yet the message of the gospel is plain, clear and simple. It is just this: 'Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.' Do you ask, 'How can I be saved from my sin?' 'How can I be made righteous before God?' 'How can a sinner like me be justified in the sight of God?' There is no need for your perplexity. Paul said, 'The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' If you will acknowledge Christ's lordship and dominion over you, believing on him alone for the pardon of your sin and all your righteousness before God, you will be saved.
Nothing in all the world is more plain and clear than that. You do not need to figure out a way of salvation. Christ has done it all. You must simply trust him. As surely as it is true that 'The soul that sinneth it shall die', just that surely it is true that 'Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.' Not until the throne of God is overturned and the truth of God becomes a lie will it be possible for a sinner truly to believe on Christ without being saved.
The question is simply this: 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' If you do, you are a saved man or woman. Your sins are pardoned and you are made perfectly righteous in Christ.
The law of God is holy and just and good. But it becomes a very great evil when it is perverted and used for something other than its divine purpose.
Now Paul tells us what the design and purpose of God's law is. It was never intended by God to be a means of justification or sanctification, a motive for Christian service, a rule of life for believers, or a code of moral ethics. The law of God has but one singular purpose. It exposes man's guilt and sin before God, shutting him up to faith in Christ alone for salvation. 'It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made.' 'The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.' To use the law for any other purpose is to pervert and abuse the law.
Once a man comes to Christ by faith, the law has no more claim upon him and no longer has dominion over him. The law was not made for a righteous man. The language of Holy Scripture in this matter could not be clearer or more emphatic. 'After that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.' 'We are not under the law, but under grace.' 'Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.' 'Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.' We who are free dare not entangle ourselves again with the yoke of bondage. Our freedom has been purchased at too high a price, the precious blood of Christ. We have a higher, better, more effectual motive for our obedience, service and devotion than the law given by Moses. 'The love of Christ constraineth us!' When true love reigns in the heart there is no need for law. Love for Christ causes us to love one another. This love makes God's elect patient, kind, honest, generous and faithful. And this love is the fulfilinent of the law.
What a glorious thought! Is it possible? Can it be true that the eternal, omnipotent, all-wise, incomprehensible God, in the Trinity of his sacred persons, is for us? Let that once be established as a fact, both of revelation and experience, and all fear must vanish from our hearts. 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' Who can with success oppose those for whom the Almighty is engaged?
Now here is the glorious fact of the matter concerning those who love God and are the called according to his purpose: God is for us! God is absolutely sovereign in all things. He has dominion over all the universe (Ps. 115:3; Dan. 4:34-37; Isa. 4:5-7; Prov. 21:1; Rom. 11:36).
This God is for us in his sovereign, providence working all things together for our good (Rom. 8:28). Everything in the universe is being manipulated by God to accomplish good for his elect. The wise man said, 'There shall no evil happen unto the just' (Prov. 12:21). That is to say, Nothing shall work against God's elect. There is no limitation to the promise.
But that is not all, God is for us in his saving purpose (Rom. 8:29-30). Notice that each verb is in the past tense. According to God's own purpose and decree, our salvation is an accomplished reality in Christ. He knew us in electing love, predestinated us to be his sons, called us his own, justified us in his purpose and glorified us in Christ. This is God's purpose for all his elect, and his purpose will be done.
Once more, God is for us in his substitutionary provision (v.32). In order that he might justly save us, according to his own purpose God spared not his own Son. Everything agreed upon in the covenant of grace Christ had to endure. He was not spared the strict requirements of righteousness or the infinite wrath of justice. He was delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God to die as our Substitute. Now, surely, this great and merciful God, who gave his own Son for us, will freely give us all things. What then shall we fear?
The believer's hope is his confident persuasion of God's goodness and mercy in Christ. It is an expectation of all necessary good, both in time and eternity, founded upon the promises, relations and perfections of God, and upon the righteousness, shed blood and intercession of Christ. It is a combination of desire, expectation, patience and joy. By faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we are persuaded that God is both able and willing to do us good, and we expect him to do so. This is our hope. Our circumstances may vary. Our confidence may at times diminish. Our assurance may waver. Our sense of joy may decline. But our hope never changes, for our hope is in the Lord. 'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him' (see Lam, 3:21-26). Here are four things which give me hope. Here are four solid, immutable pillars upon which I rest my soul continually.
1. God's immutable mercy. Some people trust their works; others place all confidence in their religion, but we know that 'It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.' As a guilty sinner I have no hope but in God's eternal, redemptive, immutable and daily mercies.
2. God's unfailing love. To those who are in Christ, 'God is love'. 'Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.' God's love is Sure and immutable. He who so loved me that he gave his only Son to redeem me will not withhold any good thing from me. This gives me hope: 'His compassions fail not.' The eternal God will never cease to love his own!
3. God's unchanging faithfulness. 'Great is thy faithfulness!' This I know, God is faithful. He is faithful to his covenant and to his people. Divine faithfulness fills me with hope.
4. God's inexhaustible goodness. 'The Lord is good!' Surely, then, he will do good for all who seek him and wait upon him with faith, hope and patience.
In this text of Scripture, the apostle Paul teaches us that in Jesus Christ the people of God have been made entirely complete. God Almighty has accepted us upon the merits of Christ's righteousness and shed blood, and in his very person, as being one with him!
1. Our acceptance before God is eternal. There never was a time when God did not view his elect in Christ. Because God always viewed us in Christ, he always accepted us. We were in the heart of Christ from all eternity as the objects of his love and favour. We were in his hands as our Surety. Our names were written beneath his in the book of life before the world began. God chose us in Christ and in Christ we are accepted.
2. Our acceptance in, Christ is real. We are really and truly one with the Son of God! 'We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.' Just as the race of humanity was in the loins of Adam, all the hosts of God's elect were in Christ. Before God, by God's decree, Jesus Christ is our legal, spiritual and real Representative. What that means is this: what he has done, we have done in him. When he obeyed God's law, we obeyed the law in him. When he died, we died in him. When he arose, we arose in him. When he sat down at the Father's right hand, we were made to sit together with him in heavenly places.
3. Our acceptance in Christ is immutable. Through our sin and unbelief, we sometimes lose the sweetness of fellowship and communion with our God. But our acceptance with God never varies! God does not accept us on the basis of anything done by us. He accepts us for Christ's sake. The only way for one of God's elect to become unaccepted is for God to reject his own Son, for we are in him! Until God rejects Christ, he cannot, and will not, reject those who are in Christ. This is our blessed security! 'He hath made us accepted in the beloved.'
We all hope for eternal life and the glorious bliss of heaven. But is my hope reasonable? Peter wrote, 'Be ready always to answer every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you', implying that a good hope is both reasonable and evident.
This I know: the eternal, immaculate God of heaven will never accept anything less than absolute perfection. 'Therefore, it is most unreasonable for me to trust myself, or anything I have done, for my acceptance with God.
My only hope is in a Substitute, one whom God will accept in my stead. God himself has provided such a Substitute for sinners like me. Jesus Christ, God's own Son, took upon himself my own nature. He lived in this world as a man for thirty-three years in perfect conformity to God's law and will, establishing perfect righteousness for sinners. Then he went to the cross, there to suffer the just penalty of God's law and justice for the sins of his people. Being both God and man, he was able to satisfy the infinite wrath of God by one great sacrifice. Dying in my place, the God-man was buried in a tomb. But on the third day after his crucifixion, my Substitute broke the walls of the grave, declaring that those people for whom he died were justified! By his resurrection, the Son of God is declared of God to be accepted as the all-sufficient Sacrifice for sin. My sins, which he bore, are all gone. My debt to God's offended justice was paid in full by the price of Immanuel's blood!
Now, it is most reasonable for me to trust him, and him alone, for my entire salvation. No other sacrifice can give my guilty conscience peace; and none other can meet the requirements of a just and holy God. God himself provided Christ as a Substitute for sinners. God laid my sins upon him. God killed him in my place. God raised him from the dead as my Representative. And God declares that all who trust him will not perish, but have eternal life. Trust him I will, I must, I do! I have no other hope. Will you trust him, too?
Every sin is an infinite evil in the eyes of a holy God, and will be punished eternally in hell, no matter how small and insignificant it may appear in man's eyes. But the greatest sin in all the world is the sin of unbelief. If you go to hell it will be for this reason: you refused to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear what God says, 'He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.' 'He that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.' The hottest place in hell is reserved for 'good, moral' people who refuse to believe the gospel. They hear it, and perhaps understand it mentally, but they will not believe. To persist in your unbelief is to commit an unpardonable blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Do not try to excuse your unbelief by blaming it on God's decree. Where is it written in the Bible that God predestinated your sinful unbelief? God's decree never shut the doors of mercy against anyone. And do not look upon your unbelief as a light thing. Once in a while, I meet with someone who talks as though he is honouring God by confessing his unbelief! If you refuse to believe the gospel, it is your own fault. And it is a hideous crime. By your unbelief, you make God a liar! You are saying that the gospel of God is a lie, the Son of God is not worthy of your trust, the Word of God is not to be believed and the witness of the Spirit is not to be received! Your unbelief exposes your proud hatred of God, your mockery of the blood of Christ and your disdain for the grace of God. There is only one reason why you are not saved, and that is that you will not come to Christ. And the only reason why you will not come is that you will not believe. You do not believe in the merit and sufficiency of Christ's blood and righteousness. And you do not believe that you need him. Else you would come to him.
Because of your unbelief God will send you to hell! And all God's creation will say, 'Amen' to your eternal damnation yourself included! You must either turn to Christ in faith, or perish. Which will it be?
Our Lord does not forbid the use of repetition in prayer. In fact, he teaches us that a man whose heart is heavy and burdened ought to use importunity in pleading with God (Luke 11:8-10). That which is forbidden is the use of 'vain repetition'- the use of words without meaning.
Do you find yourself, when you are praying, either in public or in private, using the same words and phrases? Asking for the same things? Saying the same things? Praying without really thinking about what you are saying? I am afraid that many people might just as well use a tape recorder as their tongues when they pray. Others use pretty words and phrases that impress men. They pray so well and in such affecting tones when they are praying in public. These are the vain repetitions our Lord warns us to avoid. Such praying is an abomination before God!
Dare I approach the Lord of heaven without sincerity, earnestness and thoughtfulness? Dare I speak to God without carefulness? Dear friends, let us take care that we do not pray out of habit, or ritual, or because it is time to pray. It would be better not to pray at all. Read the prayers of Moses, Elijah, David, Daniel and Paul. By their examples we should learn something about prayer. True prayer arises from a sense of need. It is the voice of a sincere heart crying out to the Lord. We do not know how to pray as we ought, by nature. The Spirit of God in a man's heart teaches him how to pray. He leads, guides and directs the children of God in prayer.
Pray with adoration and thanksgiving, worshipping God and giving thanks to him. Pray in faith, trusting the merits of Christ's righteousness and shed blood and resting in the promises of God. Pray with intercession, seeking God's blessing upon his people. Pray in submission, submitting your will to God's will, preferring his will to your own. And pray with sincerity, saying neither more nor less than you truly feel in your heart. Above all, seek the glory of God. When the glory of God in Christ is the motive of our prayers, we have begun to pray, but not until then.
'Now once in the end of the world hath he [the Lord Jesus Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself' (Heb. 9:26). It was for sinful men like us that the great Redeemer appeared. Once, in the end of the world, when the fulness of time was come, the Son of God appeared at the appointed place to put sin out of existence. Jesus Christ came into the world for this express purpose, to redeem hopelessly sinful men. He came into the world to give a real deliverance from sin by putting it away. He came to establish peace between man and God; for when sin is gone peace is lawful. Jesus Christ did not come into the world to make sin a harmless mistake. He did not come to give you a covering for your sin. He did not come to help you forget your sin. The Son of God came into this world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Sin is an infinitely evil thing. Sin is an attack upon the very throne of God. It is an offence against God's holiness, the transgression of God's law and the rebellion of the heart against God's sovereignty. Sin is the monstrous attempt of depraved man to rape God and rob him of his dignity and glory as God! Sin is man's denial of God's right to be God!
It is a very hard thing to put away sin. All the Jewish sacrifices of the Old Testament, costly and numerous as they were, could not put away sin. All the religious zeal and devotion of the scribes and Pharisees could not put away sin. Not even repentance, faith and a holy life can put away sin. Even if you and I were to suffer the wrath of God in hell for ever, we could not put away one sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ has put away sin! By his one all-sufficient, infinitely meritorious sacrifice at Calvary, the Son of God has put away all the sins of all his people for ever! He did not put our sins away into hiding, or in reserve, to bring them out at another time. The blood of Christ has put sin out of existence for his people! In the sight of God's law, so far as his holiness and justice are concerned, the man or woman who trusts Christ has no sin!
Even those who are well instructed in the gospel doctrines of election, redemption, justification and regeneration commonly embrace seriously erroneous views of sanctification. They teach that salvation is altogether by grace, and they realize that sanctification is an essential part of salvation, but they insist that sanctification is partly a work of God and partly a work of man. Such mixing of grace and works in this aspect of salvation leads many to embrace a perverted doctrine of sanctification.
Pentecostalism teaches that sanctification is a second work of grace, whereby the believer is made totally free from sin, and the old nature of sin is eradicated from his being. Such a proud doctrine is directly contrary to the plain statement of Holy Scripture: 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us' (1 John 1:8). And the notion of 'sinless perfection' is contrary to the experience of every believer. Believers confess their sin. They do not hide it. Honesty compels us to acknowledge that, though we are no longer under the dominion of sin, we do have a continual struggle with sin. Sin is mixed with everything we think or do. Any man who says he is without sin is a liar.
The self-righteous legalist makes sanctification nothing more than outward, legal morality. He thinks that sanctification is accomplished by his separation from the world, his obedience to religious customs and traditions and his abstinence from the use of things he considers evil. 'Touch not, taste not, handle not' is his creed.
And among most of those whom we recognize as orthodox, evangelical Christians, sanctification is thought to be the progressive increase of the believer's 'personal holiness'. We are told that the children of God attain higher degrees of holiness by their own works in sanctification, until at last they are ripe for heaven, and that sanctification buds forth into ultimate glorification. Usually, this 'progressive sanctification' is made to be the basis of the believer's assurance on earth and the basis of his eternal reward in heaven.
I hear men talk of progressive sanctification. I am told that God's people grow in holiness and righteousness. Some men will even dare to assert, 'I am holier than thou.' They think that their good works, their piety, their devotion, their prayers, their meditations and their Bible reading since they professed faith in Christ make them more holy, inwardly and outwardly, before God. But it is all a self-righteous delusion. God says of all such pretenders of piety, 'These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.' It is true, God's elect grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We grow in faith, devotion, submission and even obedience to Christ. But never in all the Word of God do I read of a man who trusted Christ claiming to grow in holiness, purity, or sanctification before God. In fact, the very opposite is true. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he said, 'Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.' When job had grown the most in grace and had seen the most of God's glory, he cried, 'Behold, I am vile!' When David had the greatest assurance of God's pardoning grace, he had also the greatest awareness of his own sin. He said, 'I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.' When Paul had faithfully preached the gospel for many years he said, 'I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.' When Paul was about to lay down his life in martyrdom, when he reached a far higher degree of faithfulness and dedication than anyone I know, he did not call himself the holiest of all saints, he called himself the chief of all sinners.
Where do you find sanctification? I can tell you where all of God's saints find it - Christ is our sanctification. He is all my righteousness, all my redemption, all my sanctification and all my holiness before God. Sanctification is not by the works of the flesh any more than justification is. Sanctification is the work of God's sovereign grace whereby he has separated us to be holy in Christ by election, declared us to be holy in Christ by redemption, and made us to be holy in Christ by regeneration.
C.H. Spurgeon made this statement, with which I fully agree, about the doctrine of progressive sanctification: 'I do not admire the term "progressive sanctification", for it is unwarranted by Scripture; but it is certain that the Christian does grow in grace, and though his conflict may be as severe in the last day of his life as in the first moment of conversion, yet he does advance in grace, and all his imperfections and his conflicts within cannot prove that he has not made progress.'
A believers does not gradually become less sinful and more holy in the sight of God. Can there be degrees of righteousness and holiness in the sight of God? The very term 'holiness' implies perfection. Anything less than absolute perfection is not holiness, but sin.
The only holiness any fallen man can have is that holiness which God gives to all believers in Christ, and it is perfect holiness. God's elect were sanctified in eternal election, when we were set apart for God and declared to be holy in God's eternal purpose. In time we were actually perfected and made holy in the eyes of God's law and justice, by the righteousness and shed blood of Christ as our Substitute. When Christ died at Calvary he 'perfected for ever them that were sanctified', those who were set apart by God for himself in election. Perfect holiness was legally imputed to God's elect by the obedience of Christ. Then, in divine regeneration, a perfectly holy nature has been imparted to all who are born of the Spirit. To be born again is to have the divine nature implanted in us, so that we are partakers of the divine nature. This is sanctification. It is not progressive, but perfect and complete, in Christ.
While we live in this world we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. We grow in faith and in love and in hope. But we do not grow in holiness before God. Christ is our only holiness before God. So long as we live in this world our old nature will continue to be nothing but sinful flesh. It never gets sanctified.
I hear men talk of becoming less and less sinful and progressively holier from day to day. I hear men talk about their 'progressive sanctification' a great deal. But the more they boast of their progressive holiness, the more harsh, judgemental and mean spirited they become towards their 'lesser brethren'. Their doctrine is this: 'God's children,' they say, 'grow in righteousness and personal holiness until they are ripe for heaven.' They actually teach that glorification is the end result of their own progressive attainments in 'personal holiness'. If their doctrine is true, if it is possible for men gradually to become less sinful and more holy, then it is possible for men, by diligence, self-denial and mortification of the flesh, eventually to attain sinless perfection in this life.
Such doctrine, of course, is contrary to Holy Scripture (1 John 1:8, 10). Any man who says that he is without sin, even for a fleeting second, is deceived, the truth is not in him and he makes God a liar. And honesty compels me to acknowledge that this doctrine of 'progressive sanctification' is totally contrary to my own experience. I have, I believe, over the past nineteen years, grown in grace. My love for, faith in and commitment to Christ have grown, increased and matured by the grace of God. But my sin has not diminished. My outward acts of sin are more restricted and controlled than before, but the inward evil of my flesh has not lessened. If anything, it is worse now than ever. With aching heart, I confess my sin. Though I am redeemed, justified and sanctified in Christ, I am still a man in the flesh, and my flesh is full of sin. By painful experience, I have learned that 'I am carnal, sold under sin... For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.' Christ alone is my redemption. Christ alone is my righteousness. Christ alone is my acceptance with God. And Christ alone is my sanctification.
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