Eternally Assured

  So please dear Elizabeth, learn to understand God's Word better, so that you do not regard Jesus as another Moses. By this I mean, that you will not treat our Advocate and Savior as an accuser and condemner, which is the greatest dishonor with which people can dishonor Jesus"" -Petrus Dathenus (The Pearl of Christian Comfort)  " Elizabeth: But now dear brother, please tell me, what purpose would this ability to distinguish between Law & Gospel serve?  Dathenus: It will serve to comfort and strengthen you by faith in Jesus Christ, and by the aforementioned gospel promises, quiet and overcome the anxiety of your conscience which is troubled by the killing letter of the law" - Petrus Dathenus (The Pearl of Christian Comfort)  "Dear Christian, the Gospel is for you. The forgiveness of sins is for you. Jesus, and His death and resurrection, His mercy and grace, His undeserved kindness are still for you, today and always. Your life is hidden with Go...

    " When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me" - Charite Lees Bancroft "When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast. When the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast. I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path. For my love is often cold. He must hold me fast" - Ada R Habershon      Another week has passed in this "vale of tears" called life.  Christians everywhere have physically and mentally experienced the consequences of "East of Eden" living while simultaneously plagued with the awareness of their own sin and misery. Monday started with bright eyes and a promise of "I will never do it again" and "I will spend more time in the Word this week". However, by Friday and Saturday the law...

" The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty." - Exodus 34:6-7a The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen His glory,  glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth - John 1:14    "Jesus Christ is the fullest expression of God's steadfast love and faithfulness to save His people from their sins" - Rev. Brad Lenzner Being in a state of persistent discouragement during this time has a way of mercilessly taking an emotional toll on you. I am afraid to admit that I currently live under this heaviness. Throughout the past few weeks, I have been meditating on a Lord's Day sermon preached a few weeks ago based on John 1:14 (I will share the link at the end of this post).  There was one particular connection the pastor made between Exodus...

"This is not an artificial arrangement. Guilt, Grace Gratitude. This is what will set your life free in the joy of the comfort of the Gospel - both in life and in death. Know it well and live by it" - John Fonville  What is your only comfort in life and in death?  (Heidelberg Question and Answer 1) Answer: That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way, that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head. Indeed all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore by His Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him. How many things must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?  (Heidelberg Question and Answer 2) Answer: Three: Firs...

"In short, when you love God, you make him the greatest pleasure of your life. When we can consider what real love for God is, you can easily see that you cannot love God in this way if you think you are under the curse and wrath of God. You cannot love God if you are under the continual secret suspicion that He is really your enemy!" -  Walter Marshall (The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification) Edited by Bruce McRae What is Sanctification? Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness. (Westminster Shorter Catechism)  A Secret Suspicion I am currently reading a book called the Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall. The first chapter of the book spent time exploring what it really means to love God. There were several pages that I read in which I felt like I was being spiritually filleted. To love God - ...

(Heidelberg Q&A 49) How does Christ's Ascension into heaven benefit us?  First he is our Advocate in heaven before the Father. Second we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that he, our Head will also take us, his members up to himself. Third he sends us his Spirit as a counter pledge by whose power we seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and not the things that are on earth My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (1st John 2: 1-2) Advocate: a person who pleads for or in behalf of another, intercessor.  Have you ever felt exhausted and weighed down by the condemnation that can come from your own heart? Is your mind an endless list of evaluations of motives and sins? Weary one, are ...

(Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 52) How does Christ's return to "judge the living and the dead"comfort you?  In all distress and persecution, with uplifted head, I confidently await the very judge, who has already offered himself to the judgement of God in my place and removed the whole curse from me. Christ will cast all his enemies and mine into everlasting condemnation, but will take me and all his chosen ones to himself into the joy and glory of heaven.  I have been at a loss of words for the past few days, unable to completely process what has transpired in the aftermath that follows the murder of a black man in broad daylight at the hands of an evil man who bears the badge of civil authority - the authority that ironically is supposed to preserve and protect life rather than take it. I feel overwhelmed and helpless at the state of our world and the state of justice. Right now, all I want to do is sit in the dust and weep. If anything - the Gospel of Christ ...