Spurgeon on the "Black Words" of the Bible

I found this quite eloquent and enlightening.

"So the Lord doth add threatenings to commands; for sometimes a black word will drive a soul to Christ where a bright word would not draw it. Fears of hell sometimes make men flee to Jesus. The weary wing made the poor dove fly to the ark: and the thunderbolts of God's justice are only meant to make thee fly to Christ the Lord."

Eat Your Heart Out Hollywood

Lately I've been reading almost exclusively a mix of books on marriage. It has been a great blessing to mine these books for gold and to think through the joys and the hardships of marriage. This morning I read the chapter on Submission in Mike Mason's The Mystery of Marriage and was blessed by this profound thought on love and marriage:

"To love is not just to view someone as the most wonderful person in the world or as some kind of saint. It is also to see all the weakness, the falseness and shoddiness, all the very worst in the loved one exposed--and then to be enabled, by the pure grace of God, not only to accept this person, but to accept in a deeper, more perfect way than was possible before. Love works for two people, in other words, the way faith works for one. For faith always begins with a frank recognition of one's own sinfulness (called repentance), which paradoxically opens up the way for greater self-acceptance through forgiveness. Similarly, before love can really begin to be love, it must face and forgive the very worst in the person loved.

In marriage, a wife's imperfections are not something a husband can afford to hold against her, but neither can he afford simply to overlook them. Rather he must bear them with her as part of his cross, just as she bears with him. To live with her in love is to experience at close quarters the way she herself struggles with her own humanness. Is such intimate and costly knowledge to be repaid with criticism? No, it can be answered only with tenderness and compassion and borne with a profound sadness that in turn makes room for more and more love. In this way, love not only falls from heaven but rises from the earth. Lo love is to be caught in the vortex of another's humanity, to spiral down and down into the murky, tragic tangles of the sinful flesh, where only pure love can go without being defiled. If hatred often consists in being repelled by mere impressions, by surface characteristics in other people who happen to rub us the wrong way, then love consists in seeing into the very center of the twistedness and sin and self-love that are in the heart of another person and yet not being repelled: holding on to the grace by which we ourselves are loved and finding in it the strength to descend with another into their darkest place. If we love other people for their saintliness, then we do not love at all. Love is wasted on saints. It is meant for the sinner."

"Faith Reviving" by Augustus Toplady

I recently read J.I. Packer's A Quest for Godliness and discovered this gem-of-a-text within. It's both a blessing and a challenge. A blessing because it reminds me of the truth that my heart so desperately needs to hear. A challenge because I spend everyday of my life trying to justify myself in the way that this hymn explains Christ has already done.

From whence this fear and unbelief?
Hath not the Father put to grief
His spotless Son for me?
And will the righteous Judge of men
Condemn me for that debt sin
Which, Lord, was charged on thee?

Complete atonement thou hast made,
And to the utmost farthing paid
Whate'er they people owed;
How then can wrath on me take place
If sheltered in thy righteousness,
And sprinkled with thy blood?

If thou hast my discharge procured,
And freely in my room endured
The whole of wrath divine,
Payment God cannot twice demand--
First at my bleeding Surety's hand,
And then again at mine.

Turn then, my soul, unto they rest!
The merits of thy great High Priest
Have bought thy liberty;
Trust in his efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.

"Saved By His Precious Blood"

Recently, I had the great privilege and blessing of re-reading J.I. Packer's article entitled "Saved By His Precious Blood", which is an outlining of the Reformed faith. I believe this was the third time I had read the article, and I could not help but feeling inspired and, dare I say, further sanctified, as I was reading the article.

I doubt that any single article has ever affected my theology, and thus my life, in such a profound and drastic way (thus I exhort you to read this article!). When I first read the article, about 5 years ago, I was struggling with Reformed Theology (or Calvinism) and what the Bible really had to say about the manner in which God brings us to salvation and then to sanctification and glorification. This article was the resource that helped me most in my progression from being Arminian to being Reformed, as it displays a theology that is chiefly about glorifying God. While many Calvinistic arguments are based on arrogance and pride, this piece by Packer is humbly written and Christ-centered. He proposes that we should embrace the theology of God's sovereign grace, not because it communicates a high view of the gospel, but rather because (as Spurgeon once said), it is the gospel!

This essay is far superior to many other articles of a similar nature because it declares that Calvinism extends to far more than 5 points. In fact, Packer points out that the 5 points we commonly accept as Reformed Theology are actually just 1 point, that what Christ accomplished on the cross was completely effective in, not simply provided a way for sinners, but in actually effectually saving those who have been chosen by our sovereign, loving God. Packer cites the 5 points as falling far short of the glory of the Reformed faith, and expounds the wonders of the powerful, effective and saving God of the Reformed faith as compared to the puny, pleading, half-saving God of Arminianism.

If you are a Calvinist, I entreat you to read this article so that you will see the aim of our faith, to exalt God! If you are not a Calvinist, I hardly think you can reject the Reformed faith without reading this powerhouse of an article, which finds all of its potency in the voice of Scripture.

I pray that the Lord uses this article to bless others the way it has, and continues to, bless me.

Letters From the Late Rev. William Romaine to a Friend

"...for Christ does not give us a stock of grace, and expect us to improve it by being faithful to grace give: no, no: that is not his way. Our souls must depend upon him, as our bodies do upon the elements of this world. Every moment we must live by faith upon his fulness, and be every moment receiving out of it grace for grace. And this is our happiness--to have all in Christ. A beggar in myself, but rich with unsearchable eternal riches in him. Ignorant still in myself, but led and taught by his unerring wisdom. A sinner still, but believing in his blood and righteousness. Weak and helpless still, but kept by his Almighty love. Nothing but sorrow in myself, nothing but joy in him. Oh! this is a blessed life. No tongue can tell what a heaven it is, thus to live by faith upon the Son of God." -William Romaine