devotional

30DEC
2018

LBCF 1689 Reflections. Part 131

Reflections on the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.

23 Aug 14 began a perhaps unbroken, orderly, and personal journey through my favorite written confession of faith. This will be my personal reflections on this beloved written codification of the Christian Faith which is according to a Baptist flavor.

 

NEXT-

 

Section 15.2: “Whereas there is none that doth good and sinneth not, and the best of men may, through the power and deceitfulness of their corruption dwelling in them, with the prevalency of temptation, fall into great sins and provocations; God hath, in the covenant of grace, mercifully provided that believers so sinning and falling be renewed through repentance unto salvation.”

 

I preached this morning in church about what Christ has done in making all things new. I don’t often link to them in these devotionals, but the audio message is on the website. It’s called, “A New Year’s Message for 2019”. In the message, I talked about how what Jesus gives to his own is far more than just a “clean slate” or just some “fresh start.” That if that was all we had, we’d all still be hopeless. We need something far more powerful than a zero balance on our sin. We need an enduring grace that delivers us. We have that if we have the living intercessory work of Jesus himself.

Jesus came to give us himself. The Godman for man. When we are “in him” we have his very own righteousness to hope in. In Jesus, we pass from death to life. We move from darkness to light, and from Satan to God. It is a glorious deliverance. Jesus himself is God’s grace given to mankind.

 

In that gift, we have a complete pardon. Scripture speaks of it as nothing less. We have Jesus’ own perfect holiness applied to us. We stand in the imputation of his righteousness. This will be fully realized in the future, but is ours presently. If it was probationary life, none of us could ever pass the test. This is why it’s by faith alone that we’re saved, and not by our works. Those to whom Jesus gives this righteousness will never lose it. God doesn’t save or keep us saved apart from that which he calls us to do. It is by the means that God establishes the ends. If we sin after being born again, God, as a part of this amazing life he gave us in Christ, brings us back in various ways. He will not let us be lost to our enemies.

 

Christians will sin. Sometimes they’ll sin grievously. In a true sense, every sin committed post the receipt of God’s grace is far more egregious than before someone believed. The Gospel is nothing if not the promise of a peace that cannot and will not be removed. God will shepherd his own. He will bring us back. The Christian may sin, but he will not throw in the towel.

One response to “LBCF 1689 Reflections. Part 131”

  1. Joseph Pittano says:

    Love it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *