I just wanted to let you all know about an amazing post Amy Roberts made over at Reform and Revive. Check it out here!

Hello All,

     This may be my last post for a while, but I wanted to relay something that stuck with me from reading John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin. Do yourself a favor and heed the following stern warning to all of us:

Danger 1 - Being Hardened by the Deceitfulness of Sin

Hebrews 3:12-13 : Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “Today”, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“Beware”, he says, “use all means, consider your temptations, watch diligently; there is a treachery, a deceit in sin that tends to the hardening of your hearts from the fear of God.” This hardening is so serious that your heart becomes insensitive to moral influence. Sin leads to this. Every sin and lust will make a little progress in this direction. You who at one time were very tender and would melt under the influence of the Word and under trials will grow “sermon-proof” and “trial-proof.”

You who used to have great assurance of God’s love, trembling at His presence, the thought of death, and your appearance before Him, will now have a hardness in your heart that remains unmoved by these things.

You will have no more conviction in your soul about your sin. You will be able to pass over spiritual duties like prayer, hearing, and reading, with your heart not in the least affected by them. Sin will be a light thing to you and you will not be much troubled by it.

…Take heed! This is the outcome of harbouring your lust - the hardening of your heart, the searing of your conscience, the blinding of your mind, the dulling of your affections, and the deceiving of your whole soul.

If any of you thinks he is standing firm, take heed, lest he fall!

     In my final weeks of school here and am currently working on a term paper relating to the “prosperity gospel” in Africa. As I was reading an article written by Paul Gifford on the spread of the prosperity gospel in Africa, he notes one feature of the movement being that pastors are often considered to be almost infallible, especially in terms of prophecy. One pastor in particular is on record as saying, “The moment you doubt prophetic utterances, you are damned.” What a tragedy that a supposed “Man of God” would say something like this.

     Thank the Lord for verses like the following that allow us the freedom to test the spirits:

I John 4:1 : …do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Be blessed and look to the Cross! —> Romans 5:8

How can we know that we are Born Again?

II Corinthians 13:5 : Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize…that Jesus Christ is in you? -unless indeed you fail the test!

     Before I begin, my apologies for not writing much here recently. I am in the final days of college and the brunt of work has finally hit. I will be sure to make up for the lack of posts with some more blogging after graduation!

     I think we have reached the most important and personal question of this series. Thus, I would like to take the advice of Paul in II Corinthians, to test ourselves and see if we are truly christians and have graciously experienced the miracle of regeneration. I exhort you as well to take this advice! I have heard it said that just like we need a Physical, we also need a “Spiritual” examination regularly. Therefore, I would like to offer seven ways of testing ourselves as seen from Scripture.

     But first I should make a special note. The things that I will mention, we do not by virtue of doing them achieve our salvation. If that were true, salvation would be by works and not by grace (Romans 3:27-28). Thus, as you examine yourself, ask honestly if these things are true of you currently:

1) Are you led by the Spirit of God to aggressively oppose your own sin?

Romans 8:13 : For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

     If we are truly saved and have been regenerated by God, we will show signs of this by aggressively opposing the sin that is still present in our own selves and lives. However, if we are cavalier and apathetic about our own sin, this is Biblical grounds to question our salvation.

2) Are you currently trusting Christ for your salvation rather than your own record of good and bad deeds?

Colossians 1:23 : And you…He has now reconciled in His body…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the Gospel…

     Once again, if we have been truly saved, we will show that we are reborn by continuing and persevering in our trust in Christ for our salvation. In I John, John points out regarding some who had left the church (and Christ) that, “They went out from us…if they had been of us they would have continued with us.” Those who ultimately fall away from Christ show that their salvation was never authentic. And again, we do not make ourselves persevere in Christ. We cannot know this fact and then by virtue of our autonomous performance of not walking away from Him, earn and keep our salvation. Rather, we show that He has saved and kept us by our perseverance in Christ (I Peter 1:5). And we know from Philippians 1:6 that if He begins a good work in us “He will carry it on to completion.” See Jesus’ parable on the weeds for more on this point (Matthew 13:24-43).

3) Are you still repenting to this day?

I John 1:6 : If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

     This one goes along with the second question. Clearly Scripture communicates to us here that if we are knowingly living in Sin, we show that we are not yet saved. I should emphasize that this does not mean that Christians don’t sin. Verse 8 right after this says that, “If we say we have no sin…the truth is not in us.” But the sin that is referred to in verse 6 is present progressive sin, sin that we know is such and yet do not authentically repent of to trust in Christ.

4) Are you showing progressive signs of sanctification in your Christian life?

Hebrews 10:14 : For by a single offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

     True Christians show another sign of their new birth in their progressive sanctification and growth in their walk with Christ. This verse shows us that if we are not growing in Christ, we prove that we are yet without the new birth. But the good news of this verse is that, if we are showing this sign, God is able to see us through the lens of His perfect Son, Jesus. Thus, we can feel secure in Christ and not our ever-changing performance in our Spiritual life. We are secure in Him as we are credited with His perfect life and thus able to approach God.

5) Do you have the inner witness and testimony of the Holy Spirit?

Romans 8:14-16 : For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba Father.” The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…

     This letter of Romans was addressed to Christians in Rome. Here Paul is helping his readers to see that if they have been truly saved by God, they will have an inner witness and testimony from the Spirit of God that they are indeed sons of God. This will translate into a humble assurance of one’s salvation.

6) Do you see God’s forgiveness as freedom to sin or freedom from sin?

Romans 6:1-7, 18 : Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?…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…and have become slaves of righteousness.

     If we have been truly saved by God and thus, changed by the grace He offers to us, we show this by seeing His offer of forgiveness as freedom from sin, not freedom to sin. On the other hand, if we see His mercy as reason to relax our opposition to sin, this would again be Biblical grounds to question the authenticity of our salvation. Does God’s mercy push you closer to sin or further away from it and closer to Him? Your life depends on your honest answer to this question.

7) Do you genuinely love Jesus? Do you rejoice in Him?

I Peter 1:8 : Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory…

     A final sign of the new birth is seen in whether or not we actually love Jesus and rejoice in knowing Him. Do you truly love Christ?

 

     As a final note, I should add that much of the help in writing this post came from my friend Raymond Goodlett over at Gospel Moment. Here is a link to a much similar series He did recently. I hope this all helps and gives you plenty to consider as you examine yourself! 

     When I first heard someone say this I was certianly taken aback and perturbed with what sounded like such a strange comment. But the more I searched the Bible and thought and prayed about it, the more I found this glorious truth to bring me tremendous joy.

     Here are two articles that will most definitely get you thinking if this is a concept or idea that is new to you. I strongly encourage you to take the time to check these out and see if this is something you find to be true as well! And most importantly, let’s see if we can generate some discussion on this, so leave a comment regardless of whether you agree or disagree. Here’s a quote from the first article:

“This is shocking. The love of God is not God’s making much of us, but God’s saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy.”

The Goal of God’s Love may not be what you think it is

Is God for us or for Himself?

Hello Everyone!

     Just wanted to inform you all that a new web site has launched for which I will be a contributor entitled “Reform and Revive.”

     It will be a place where reformed theology meets real life and posts made to the site will hopefully reflect that goal. Contributors will include Paul Burkhart, Steve Hess, David Schrott, and more. I have actually just made my first post there.

Check it out and enjoy the new site!

What is our role in the New Birth, if any?

     Now on to the difficult question of our role in the new birth. Because I will be building on some of my other posts on this topic, the answer will be fairly simple.

     Building on the fact that Regeneration is a sovereign act by God and that He is the initiator in the restoration of His relationship with His people, we can see clearly that we are the responders to God in the act of conversion/salvation.

     How do we respond? We respond by repenting of our sin against God (Psalm 51:4) and placing our faith in Christ for our righteousness before God and thus, our salvation from the penalty we deserve for our sin, namely God’s wrath for said sin. Note the following verses:

Acts 20:21 : …testifying both to Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

II Corinthians 7:10 : For Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief leads to death.

Galatians 2:20 : I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Respected Christian theologian Wayne Grudem defines Repentance as the following:

“Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ.” - Bible Doctrine, pg. 309.

Furthermore, he defines Saving Faith in the following way:

“Saving faith is trust in Jesus Christ as a living person for forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God.” - Ibid, pg. 308.

     Thus, we conclude that while we play no role at all in Spiritual New Birth. However, if God does cause us to be born again, our role in Salvation/Conversion is by responding with repentance for sin and faith in Jesus Christ to save us personally. But we cannot and will not repent and place our faith in Jesus Christ apart from the new birth.

John Piper says it like this:

“Your part in the act of new birth is faith-faith in the crucified and risen Son of God, Jesus Christ, as the Savior and Lord and Treasure of your life. What you do in the act of new birth is believe on Christ. The way you participate…is by receiving Christ for who he really is, the supremely valuable Savior, Lord, and Treasure of the universe.”

     Stay tuned for the next post coming soon on perhaps the most important question we all face: How can we know that we are born again?