As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
Reposted from Rooted Thinking.
Everyone who seeks to make disciples in obedience to Jesus Christ faces the same difficulty:
We all try to discern whether or not those we lead to profess Jesus Christ have genuinely believed.
None of us wants to give an unbeliever false hope of salvation if they have not yet repented and placed their faith in Jesus. And so, we all face frustration.
“Is it possible that we have a generation of people who grew up in Christian homes and made a ‘decision’ that you’d have to be an idiot to say no to, but have never felt the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and the drawing (and keeping) power of the Father, the covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?” - Olinger
“I’ve been a believer for 60 years now, and I’m still amazed every day at how much spiritual growth still lies ahead of me—at often I tell myself, ‘Dan, after all this time, you really ought to be better at this.’” - Olinger
No. 872. Delivered by C. H. Spurgeon on Sunday Morning, May 23rd, 1869 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”—Philippians 1:6
Video: “You don’t need to have had a dramatic conversion experience like the Apostle Paul on the Damascus Road. From his teaching series Assurance of Faith, Joel Beeke reminds us of the wonderful, “ordinary” way in which God brings His people to Christ.” - Ligonier
We’ve looked at the law and gospel in terms of “the big picture” and determined that they are interrelated and inseparable concepts (see Part 1). But is it ever appropriate to distinguish law from gospel? In other words, do the biblical writers ever contrast law with gospel? The answer is “Yes.” In fact, such a contrast is vital.
“…free grace theology eliminates the call to repentance over sin. It wrongly teaches that salvation by faith alone means that repentance is not part of the saving response to the gospel. Yet the Scriptures are clear that true saving faith is repentant faith.” - Matt Postiff
According to one writer at Beliefnet, Jesus didn’t die on the Cross for our Sins. She further added under the title of her articles that, “The idea Jesus ‘paid the price’ isn’t found in the Bible.”
“The saint is justified the moment they trust in Christ; God works immediately and fully. The saint progresses in sanctification through a lifetime of walking as the Lord continues to work. But all of it from start to finish is a work of God grounded in Christ and carried out through the Holy Spirit.” - Tim Bertolet
“Christian preaching, as it should be preaching of the gospel, must substantially involve the preaching of justification.” - Ref21
Discussion