"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it isYesterday I received the August issue of the Reformed Witness. The featured article is a transcript of the November 5, 2006 Reformed Witness Hour broadcast entitled "Protestants! Defend the Gospel!" by Rev. Carl Haak. Here is an excerpt:
the power of God for the
salvation of everyone who believes: first for the
Jew, then for the Gentile. For
in the gospel a righteousness from God is
revealed, a righteousness that is by
faith from first to last, just as it is
written: "The righteous will live by
faith." Romans 1:16-17
The Gospel is beautifully stated in Romans 3:24, "we are justified freely by his grace." God has made us righteous by His grace, by His own unmerited favor, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is the legal basis of our justification - the redemption, the purchase that was made by Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ purchased us upon the cross, we are justified freely by His grace.
...The Bible teaches us that the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that is, what He did, - His perfect work on the cross, His innocence - has been legally reckoned to our account, to the account of His elect. God imputed that righteousness to me legally, so that "...the perfect righteousness of Christ, without any merit of mine, out of mere grace, is mine so completely as if I never had nor had committed any sin; [and] as if I had fully accomplished all obedience to the divine law." (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23)
That is the gospel. The gospel is: Jesus has made me righteous before God on the basis of His work on Calvary.
1 comment:
Indeed it is on one hand joy, and at times frustration to be a christian. Out of sin do saints question God electing them to begin with. One beautiful thing about the gospel is that God shows mercy to not only some, but that He would do so even to one person, for none are worthy of salvation.
The modern evangelical/calvary chapel/mega church/biblically ignorant person who labels themselves a christian turn the nose at "calvinists" though no covenant theologian worhsips a dead man, but a living Jesus. Yet in their prayers they speak to God and tell Him to do something, to draw that sinner to repentance.
Out of reverence for ones salvation does one intellectually devour an atheist, and out of gratitude, and love for God does one pray for those who curse us as Jesus tells the church in the gospels.
Be grateful for salvation, and look at the heathen and think........no different except one serves God, and the other serves the devil.
Atheists can make fun of our "religious crutch" all they want, but do you not also have a belief, indeed a system of information formulated into a body of teaching ?
It seems you too atheist also have something you put faith into that is a worldview. The most loving thing anyone can do is tell a person, "Your house is burning to the ground"
"No.....it's not" as you smell smoke
Kevin Bruny
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