Of Faith and Good Works: Part 3

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king…” Matthew 21:5

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“Thy king…”

 

Here he distinguishes this king from all other kings. It is thy king, he says, who was promised to you, whose own you are, who alone shall direct you, yet in the spirit and not in the body. It is he for whom you have yearned from the beginning, whom the fathers have desired to see, who will deliver you from all that has hitherto burdened, troubled, and held you captive.

Oh, this is a comforting word to a believing heart, for without Christ, man is subjected to many raging tyrants who are not kings but murderers, at whose hands he suffers great misery and fear… . Where the heart receives the king with a firm faith, it is secure and does not fear sin, death, hell, nor any other evil; for he well knows and in no wise doubts that this king is the Lord of life and death, of sin and grace, of hell and heaven, and that all things are in his hand. For this reason he became our king and came down to us that he might deliver us from these tyrants and rule over us himself alone.

See, such great things are contained in these seemingly unimportant words: “Behold, thy king.” Such boundless gifts are brought by this poor and despised king. All this reason does not understand, nor nature comprehend, but faith alone does. Therefore he is called thy king; thine, who art vexed and harassed by sin, Satan, death and hell, the flesh and the world, so that thou mayest be governed and directed in the grace, in the spirit, in life, in heaven, in God.

With this word, therefore, he demands faith in order that you may be certain that he is such a king to you, has such a kingdom, and has come and is proclaimed for this purpose. If you do not believe this of him, you will never acquire such faith by any work of yours. What you think of him you will have; what you expect of him you will find; and as you believe so shall it be to you. He will still remain what he is, the King of life, of grace, and of salvation, whether he is believed on or not.

Thy King, and He will still remain what He is and always has been, the King of life, of grace, and of salvation, whether He is believed or not. We do not make Him Lord of our lives. He is! He owns and directs us, which is a great comfort if we believe Him to be the King of our salvation, our lives, our circumstances, our death, and our resurrection to life eternal, through and for and with Him. Not believing Him will not change who He is, will not lessen the truth that He is the King of kings. He still owns and directs us in spite of our unbelief or wrong belief. Oh, how blessed we are when we believe, even when our reason fails to understand, when our nature fails to comprehend what we see. “Behold, thy king.” 

Thank you for reading!

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Of Faith and Good Works: Part 2

“Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold.” Matt 21:5

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“Behold.”

 

Such waking up is necessary for the reason that everything that concerns faith is against reason and nature.

—Martin Luther

While discussing faith and prayer, my friend and I agreed that what we hope for hardly ever turns out the way we expect or reason that it should. We understandably agreed that prayer, in its huge wake of tears and pleas, first purposes to change us—to dis-reason us—to bring us closer and closer to the fact that we can trust God, even with our lives and the lives of those for whom we plead!

“Behold.” With this word he rouses us at once from sleep and unbelief as though be had something great, strange, or remarkable to offer, something we have long wished for and now would receive with joy. Such waking up is necessary for the reason that everything that concerns faith is against reason and nature; for example, how can nature and reason comprehend that such an one should be king of Jerusalem who enters in such poverty and humility as to ride upon a borrowed ass? How does such an advent become a great king?

But faith is of the nature that it does not judge nor reason by what it sees or feels but by what it hears. It depends upon the Word alone and not on vision or sight. For this reason Christ was received as a king only by the followers of the word of the prophet, by the believers in Christ, by those who judged and received his kingdom not by sight but by the spirit-these are the true daughters of Zion. For it is not possible for those not to be offended in Christ who walk by sight and feeling and do not adhere firmly to the Word.

Let us receive first and hold fast this picture in which the nature of faith is placed before us. For as the appearance and object of faith as here presented is contrary to nature and reason, so the same ineffectual and unreasonable appearance is to be found in all articles and instances of faith. It would be no faith if it appeared and acted as faith acts and as the words indicate. It is faith because it does not appear and deport itself as faith and as the words declare.

Oh, that our gracious God would bless us with healthy eyes to see His splendor, the warning signs and scars of sin, and even our wayward ways and shabby things. Sight, yes sight is a wondrous gift, though it can ruin us, if it should become our lead, lord, and anchor.

“It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank Him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.” –Fanny Crosby (1820 – 1915)

In “Blessed Assurance” Fanny Crosby sings of visions that cannot be found by earthly eyes.

“Perfect submission, perfect delight,
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight.”

Faith requires perfect trust, not in what is seen but in what is heard, proclaimed by the prophets in God’s Holy Writ regarding Christ and all that He is (2 Peter 1:19). And thus, true faith submits perfectly, delightfully, and peacefully to the sovereignty and providence of God.

If Christ had entered in splendor like a king of earth, the appearance and the words would have been according to nature and reason and would have seemed to the eye according to the words, but then there would have been no room for faith. He who believes in Christ must find riches in poverty, honor in dishonor, joy in sorrow, life in death, and hold fast to them in that faith which clings to the Word and expects such things.

God blessed us exceedingly in that He gave us much more than earthly vision. He gave us faith.

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O daughter of Jerusalem:
Behold, thy King cometh unto thee:
he is just, and having salvation;
lowly, and riding upon an ass,
and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”
Zachariah 9:9

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Of Faith and Good Works: Part 1

“Say to the Daughter of Zion, ‘See, your Savior comes!’” Isaiah 62:11

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While I was web surfing today, the following quote caught my eye:

For if out of your own free will you might avoid sin and do that which pleases God, what need would you have of Christ?

—Martin Luther

And, as is the case with many great quotes, I wound up searching for its origin, its context—the heart in which it lives. Sometimes I find it. Other times I don’t. Today I found more than I bargained for! I found Martin Luther’s Works in English, where in turn I found Martin Luther’s Church Postil, in which I found The Advent Postil – Concerning Faith and Good Works.

It’s like finding a treasure trove and not knowing which piece to pick up first. There is so much here that I wish I had one of these (found here) to steal away to, just to read. But I don’t, and I praise God for daydreams and deep contentment, and for His many mercies and gifts, and for His grace and joy, which make me glad to share excerpts of these treasures with you.

Tell ye the daughter of Zion… Matt 21:5

“Tell ye” the daughter of Zion. This is said to the ministry and a new sermon is given them to preach, namely, nothing but what the words following indicate, a right knowledge of Christ. Whoever preaches anything else is a wolf and deceiver. This is one of the verses in which the Gospel is promised of which Paul writes in Rom. 1, 2; for the Gospel is a sermon from Christ, as he is here placed before us, calling for faith in him.

I have often said that there are two kinds of faith. First, a faith in which you indeed believe that Christ is such a man as he is described and proclaimed here and in all the Gospels, but do not believe that he is such a man for you…

Behold, this faith is nothing, it does not receive Christ nor enjoy him, neither can it feel any love and affection for him or from him. It is a faith about Christ and not in or of Christ, a faith which the devils also have as well as evil men… [To] say that this faith is sufficient to make Christians… virtually [denies] Christian faith… as St. Peter in 2 Pet. 2,1 had foretold: “There shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them.”

This caught my eye in particular because often when I try to explain the heresy that God has rescued me from, I get questions like, “Do they not preach Christ?” Yes, they do. They indeed preach Christ as He is described and proclaimed here and in all the Gospels, but do not believe that He alone is their righteousness by faith alone, because they like to boast of their own good merits as well.

In the second place he particularly mentions, “The daughter of Zion.” In these words he refers to the other, the true faith… He does not say: Tell of the daughter of Zion, as if some one were to believe that she has Christ; but to her you are to say that she is to believe it of herself, and not in any wise doubt that it will be fulfilled as the words declare. That alone can be called Christian faith, which believes without wavering that Christ is the Saviour not only to Peter and to the saints but also to you.  Your salvation does not depend on the fact that you believe Christ to be the Saviour of the godly, but that he is a Saviour to you and has become your own.

Such a faith will work in you love for Christ and joy in him, and good works will naturally follow. If they do not, faith is surely not present; for where faith is, there the Holy Ghost is and must work love and good works.

This faith is condemned by apostate and rebellious Christians… They call it arrogance to desire to be like the saints. Thereby they fulfill the prophecy of Peter in 2 Pet. 2, 2, where he says of these false teachers: “By reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of.” For this reason, when they hear faith praised, they think love and good works are prohibited. In their great blindness they do not know what faith, love and good works are.

If you would be a Christian you must permit these words to be spoken to you and hold fast to them and believe without a doubt that you will experience what they say. You must not consider it arrogance that in this you are like the saints, but rather a necessary humility and despair not of God’s grace but of your own worthiness… That would be arrogance if you desired to be saved by your own merit and works, as the Papists teach. They call that arrogance which is faith, and that faith which is arrogance; poor, miserable, deluded people!

If you believe in Christ and in his advent, it is the highest praise and thanks to God to be holy. If you recognize, love, and magnify his grace and work in you, and cast aside and condemn self and the works of self, then are you a Christian.

It gets better, because it’s not up to us to prove that last paragraph. God willing, I’ll be back with more excerpts next week. Thanks for your time and visits!

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Sorry for the length. I can’t seem to abide by my own blogging rule to keep things short and sweet.

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Thy Righteousness Is In Heaven

“And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
1 Corinthians 1:30

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What if I fail to improve—fail to show the sweet fruit of a blossoming Christian? If I am completely honest, I will have to admit that yes, yes, yes, I fail sometimes. Sometimes I fail miserably! This free grace that was and is supposed to make me better, holier…. Oh, I know, I know, it is not God’s sweet, free grace that I dare blame.

Then what? Why is that mirror still showing the same old sinner, or worse? I’ve tried. I’ve prayed. I’ve studied. I’ve believed. If grace cannot fail me, then what? Did I fail grace, or worse, did I fail to get it?

Perhaps you’ve never felt that dread. Great! But, perhaps you have. Perhaps you feel it now.  Beloved, we are looking at the wrong thing! Look not at your self  but here:

But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, Thy righteousness is in heaven; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, is my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a-doing, God could not say of me, He wants [lacks] my righteousness, for that was just before Him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever (Heb. 13.8).

Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed… now went I also home rejoicing, for the grace and love of God. So when I came home, I looked to see if I could find that sentence, Thy righteousness is in heaven; but could not find such a saying, wherefore my heart began to sink again, only that was brought to my remembrance, He ‘of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption’ by this word I saw the other sentence true (1 Cor. 1.30).

For by this scripture, I saw that the man Christ Jesus, as He is distinct from us, as touching His bodily presence, so He is our righteousness and sanctification before God…

Oh, methought, Christ! Christ! there was nothing but Christ that was before my eyes, I was not only for looking upon this and the other benefits of Christ apart, as of His blood, burial, or resurrection, but considered Him as a whole Christ! As He in whom all these, and all other His virtues, relations, offices, and operations met together, and that as He sat on the right hand of God in heaven.

It was glorious to me to see His exaltation, and the worth and prevalency of all His benefits, and that because of this: now I could look from myself to Him, and should reckon that all those graces of God that now were green in me, were yet but like those cracked groats and fourpence-halfpennies that rich men carry in their purses, when their gold is in their trunks at home! Oh, I saw my gold was in my trunk at home! In Christ, my Lord and Saviour! Now Christ was all; all my wisdom, all my righteousness, all my sanctification, and all my redemption.

–John Bunyan, Grace Abounding (Emphasis added)

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Christ Is

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Colossians 1:19

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Biblical wisdom is the simple that probes and comprehends the complex, not the simplistic that ignores the complex.

Sure, Bible-sounding concepts can be made as simplistic and reductionistic as the worst pop psychology. And non-biblical concepts can quickly turn into labyrinths of complexity…

Christ, on the other hand, is simple, yet he speaks into every nuance. He imparts to us a simple gaze and clear thinking, letting us ponder every variation and ambiguity without losing our bearings. He teaches us how to be properly agnostic and self-critical, and yet to be valiant for truth. He forms in us an unwavering redemptive agenda and an indestructible hope, letting us enter any life, no matter how confused, sordid, anguished, violent, addicted, or terrified. He teaches us how to feel properly weak and overwhelmed, and yet to walk confidently.

David Powlison
Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community

HT: Renewing Thoughts

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All Things

“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13

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I can do all things…

My pastor always points us to the little words with BIG meanings. Little words like “all”. I can do all– rather than some or a few things. This looks great on the surface as long as it’s not pierced, forcing us to look deeper. If I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me, then why cannot I stop the storm, the fire, cancer, the persecution and torture of my brothers and sisters in Christ,  my child from following a deadly lie, deception, divorce, pain, or death itself? I cry.

Feeling more than helpless, I wonder. All things?

Yet, right here in this  moment of quiet brooding, my seemingly upright thinking finds itself grossly upside down! To see things right-side-up, I’ll have to see things not as I would have them, but as God would have them. I’ll have to read this verse in its context to see that all doesn’t mean whatever; that Paul isn’t saying, ”I can do whatever I deem best” but rather, “All that I do is made possible only because of the strengthening I receive from Christ”. The “I can do” surrenders to Christ and He becomes central. It’s always and forever about Christ!

Yes, life holds undeniable pain. It’s more than painful, it’s excruciating when our arms hang lifeless at our sides, when we are left utterly helpless with nothing more to do except sigh (or scream). Yet, it’s in this helplessness that we find the vital truth: Death of self and life in Christ! It is His irrefutable strength that helps us and not our own tired arms.

Our upside down thinking only proves painful. What is it that frightens or hurts us the most when we face a storm, fire, persecution, cancer, prodigals, the unknown, or even death itself? Is it not the grief of doubting because we want what we think best? Oh, that all of our confidence would rest securely in Christ—ALL of it!  Yes, sorrow brings us this cure! though we’d rather not have it.

But, whenever we lean on our own understanding, we lose all confidence and our heavy hearts only sink us deeper into despair. But if, while facing a cruel tempest, our doubting souls catch hold of the everlasting arms of Christ, His strength will keep our heads above the billows.

Through Christ we can cast a sure anchor in any storm while everything around us rages and threatens to undo us. Though battered and worn, we can ride out any wave and still find ample faith and strength to help us through the day. Our souls, though fragile and wearied, can cast all their cares on Him, and rest. Our flesh may beg us to give up or in, but Christ will yet strengthen us to endure, to kiss yet another tear, to dress yet another wound, to say yet another prayer, to smile yet another smile, to climb yet another rung, to forgive yet another offense, to clean yet another mess, or to simply face another day. We will be able to all things through Christ…

Having thus turned our thinking right-side-up, we can lay hold of Christ and HIS desires. We’ll be able to lay all of our own fleeting wants aside—save one—to appear before the LORD and live!

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“Oh, the depth of the riches
of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD!
How unsearchable His judgments,
and His paths beyond tracing out!
‘Who has known the Mind of the LORD?
Or who has been His counselor?’
‘Who has ever given to GOD,
that GOD should repay him?’
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
Romans 11:33-36

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Much of what I see and hear inspires me to search beneath the surface. But this story, “June 29th….”—this example of Christ’s strength inspired me to do more than search. It inspired me to also write these words, first to myself and then to you.

Thank you for visiting!

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