All the Difference in the World

Most people in our culture believe that, if there is a God, we can relate to him and go to heaven by leading a good life. ... Christianity teaches the very opposite. In the Christian understanding, Jesus does not tell us how to live so we can merit salvation. Rather, he comes to forgive and save us through his life and death in our place. God's grace does not come to people who morally outperform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge their need for a Savior.
__Timothy Keller in The Reason for God

Ascribe Not to Thyself

Re-posted from Facets of Grace

Thanks to Eddie Eddings and Martin Luther

You Are Not Your Own - For You Are Bought With A Price

What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

That I belong - body and soul, in life and in death- not to myself but to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

How many things must you know that you may live and die in the blessedness of this comfort?

Three. First, the greatness of my sin and wretchedness. Second, how I am freed from all my sins and their wretched consequences. Third, what gratitude I owe to God for such redemption.

(Heidelberg Catechism - Lord's Day 1)

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.          (Galatians 2:20)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price, to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him."

From The Cost of Discipleship

The Overarching Theme of the Bible

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. _Isaiah 53:6

God Justifies the Wicked

The righteousness of God is a command that condemns us all, but the righteousness from God is a gift that saves all who believe. This gospel announces that sinners "are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith" (Rom. 3:24-25). God imputes (credits) our sin to Christ and Christ's righteousness to us. "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). This is the simplest news to grasp and yet the most difficult news to accept. Paul considered this doctrine to be so central that he regarded its explicit denial as "anathema" --that is, an act of heresy that the Galatian church was on the verge of committing (Gal. 1:8-9). For Paul, a denial of justification was tantamount to a denial of grace and even to a denial of Christ, "for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose" (Gal. 2:21).

_Michael Horton__ from The Gospel-Driven Life

A Marshmallow Gospel

The scripture posted for the Bible Study on Ray Comfort's blog was:

Luke 1:51-53 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

I contributed a comment which was mostly a quote from A.W. Pink, where he shows that a sinner coming to Christ for life must first realize his desperate and lost condition, and that death and judgment are just a step away.

Someone challenged that with an objection that concluded with their understanding of what conversion is. This is what they said:

"To come to Christ for life, is for the person to realize that God, as a loving father, wants only what is best for every creature; is to see himself as God's child; is to admit that he is deserving of God's love, thus taking side with God; it is for him to find himself for the first time in the grace and love of God, and humbly extend the love of God to others."

I called this a "marshmallow gospel" because the way of salvation found in Scripture is quite different. The Bible says that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Through the Law He graciously reveals to sinners their own corruption and that they will have to face a holy and just Judge on the Last Day. Through the Gospel He shows Jesus Christ, who endured the wrath of Almighty God, on the cross, as the substitute for those he came to save.

No, it isn't a matter of realizing that we are "deserving of God's love" and that all are His children. All men are naturally God's enemies, and only by grace are we saved. It is the Son of God who draws sinners to Himself, and Salvation is of free grace for all who come to Christ and receive it on his terms. (Ephesians 2:2-5)

This is the "meat and potatoes gospel," not a "marshmallow gospel."