More happy... but not more secure!

I love, love, love, love, love...

...love hymns!!

There's nothing like the solid meaty truths threaded into the lyrics of a good hymn to get the blood pumping! Whew!

During this morning's service, we sung the hymn "A Debtor to Mercy Alone", by Augustus Toplady, author of the famous "Rock of Ages". My favorite line from this hymn comes at the end of the last verse:

Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.

Why is this my favorite line? Assurance, baby!! Those who are already in heaven may be more happy than we on earth, for they now exist in the eternal glory of God, but the fact that they are already there does not make their eternal security any more sure than our own! Some may disagree with the idea of the "perseverance of the saints", but I believe that it is well supported in Scripture, and is a source of great joy for us who are redeemed sons and daughters of the LORD!

The apostle Paul wrote about this security in the eighth chapter of his epistle to the Roman believers, verses 28-30:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Notice something very important in the "golden chain" of glorification here: Paul wrote about it in the past tense! Sure, there have been, and continue to be, various debates surrounding the different translations of the Bible, but however you slice it... the past is the past, and it is finished! Paul wrote about the future glorification of those "who are loved by God and called to be saints" (Romans 1:7) as if it had already happened!

At the risk of being deemed a Scripture-meddling heretic, I would like to try something with this golden chain; I would like to put it into the perfected past tense, and add the word already to highlight this perfected action, just to put emphasis on this chain having already been completed:

And those whom he has already predestined he has also already called, and those whom he has already called he has also already justified, and those whom he has already justified he has also already glorified.

Wow. What? Really?! It's as good as done?!?! You've got to be kidding me!!

Nope. Not kidding. God's calling is surely effectual, and He will perfect His own:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
-Philipians 1:6

Wow. Wow. Wow. Assurance of salvation? How is this possible?! Because God is just, that's how:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
-1 John 1:9

How is glorification of the redeemed a necessary reaction of a just God? Because our LORD is not a God of double jeopardy: we can't be tried twice for the same crime in the courts of the Almighty Judge! The wages of sin is surely death (Romans 6:23), and God demands payment for offense to His holiness. But I don't believe that Jesus paid for the mere possibility of forgiveness at the cross... I believe that He actually satisfied the payment for the specific sins of specific people at the cross! If my debt has already been paid by Another, how can God, who is just, ever demand that I pay for that debt a second time by my own blood? He can't: for Him to do so would make Him unjust, which He is not. And furthermore, once a judgment of righteous status has been truly rendered by the LORD, how can it possibly be revoked?

But this doesn't mean that we get to continue sinning like we did before our spiritual rebirth! This objection to absolute justification and effectual perseverance was foreseen by Paul, and was therefore addressed in the sixth chapter of Romans, verses 1-11:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We would do well to consider ourselves already glorified even in our present state, for our justification has already been purchased for us by Christ, and "we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." However, because of this holy transaction - this imputation of Christ's justification and righteousness - we should first consider ourselves dead to sin... to live in it no longer... and to then rejoice with the glorified spirits in heaven that we also, being dead to sin, are already alive in Christ! Truly, truly: a new creation!!

Sweet mercy.

And God saw the light

'And God saw the light'
Genesis 1:4

This morning we noticed the goodness of the light, and the Lord's dividing it from the darkness. We now note the special eye that the Lord had for the light. "God saw the light" - He looked at it with complacency, gazed upon it with pleasure, saw that it "was good." If the Lord has given you light, dear reader, He looks on that light with peculiar interest; for not only is it dear to Him as His own handiwork, but it is like Himself, for "God is light."

It is pleasant for the believer to know that God's eye tenderly observes that work of grace that He has begun. He never loses sight of the treasure that He has placed in our earthen vessels. Sometimes we cannot see the light, but God always sees the light, and that is much better than our seeing it. Better for the judge to see my innocence than for me to think I see it. It is very comfortable for me to know that I am one of God's people - but whether I know it or not, if the Lord knows it, I am still safe. This is the foundation, "The Lord knows those who are his."

You may be sighing and groaning because of inbred sin, and mourning over your darkness; yet the Lord sees "light" in your heart, for He has put it there, and all the cloudiness and gloom of your soul cannot conceal your light from His gracious eye.

You may have sunk low in despondency, and even despair; but if your soul has any longing toward Christ, and if you are seeking to rest in His finished work, God sees the "light." He not only sees it, but He also preserves it in you. "I, the Lord, do keep it." This is a precious thought to those who, after anxious watching and guarding of themselves, feel their own powerlessness to do so. The light thus preserved by His grace, He will one day develop into the splendor of noonday, and the fullness of glory. The light within is the dawn of the eternal day.

-Charles H. Spurgeon, "Morning & Evening", January 5

But grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ!

The devotional reading for this morning was from 2 Peter 3, the first half of verse 18:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are many of these admonishments in the epistles that have often been very dear to my heart, since I find that they are filled - even in their brevity - with many Gospel truths that often escape us. This one is no exception.

Spurgeon, in commenting on this text for the morning devotional reading, says the following:

"He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus - as the heart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, 'Nearer, nearer'. Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. [...] An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us, is one of the best tests of growth in grace."

I believe that this is the flipside of the coin that I tried to look at in July (here and here). It's not an easy coin for us to examine, to be sure, but it is a necessary one. On the one side we find an exhortation to fight against sin, as in the words of John Piper:

"The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. [...] The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior."

On the other side we find a calling to seek after Christ, to know Him more today than we did yesterday, and more tomorrow than we do today. This is why the regenerated believer should seek to fight against sin: not in an attempt to justify himself, but as a means of growing closer to his Savior. We die to ourselves daily so that, daily, we might be able to love Christ more fully.

This is absolutely essential to the Christian life! Our own human attempts at holiness will not gain us anything before the judgment seat of the Almighty God (John 6:63), for the Law was not meant to save, but to point us to a Savior (Romans 5:20-21). Our right living does not justify us before a perfectly just God, for it is impossible for man to be holy in His sight on the basis of his own righteousness. Christ is righteous; we don't have to be...

...but! This striving for holiness is a mark of true regeneration, not because we sons and daughters are holier-than-thou legalists... but because it is sin which keeps us from growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior! This is why we should strive to keep God's commandments, and to exhort others to do the same, not in an attempt to polish our rusty exterior to pass it off as a shiny one, but in order to throw off all that might keep us from from running our race (Hebrews 12:1).

And this distinguishes the sons and daughters of God, for the world can try to appear holy through means of dressing up outward appearances, but only the Spirit of God can give the desire to know the Son more fully by turning from sin, and to Himself, the One who has already paid its penalty. And this can be a great encouragement to us in times of darkness, failure, and holy conviction. We will sin, it is inevitable. But when we sin, let's embrace God's loving rebuke, mourn the sinfulness of our hearts, and turn from our ways, all the while relishing in the full knowledge that it was never our own holiness which ever justified us in the first place. And let us be grateful for the fact that, even when we sin, the desire to turn from our sin, to be made whole, to know Christ more fully, is, itself, a wonderful priceless gift from the Author and Finisher of our faith.