Posted April 22nd, 2011
The doctrine of imputation is one of the most precious truths in all of Scripture yet it is often neglected or misunderstood. One pastor who understood the doctrine and wrote about it in poems and hymns is Augustus Toplady, one of the greatest English hymn writers. Scattered lines from throughout some of his poems have been edited and assembled, and new lines have been added to form one complete hymn which teaches what imputation is and demonstrates how it should move us to worship. The gospel has sometimes been called the "Great Exchange" because through faith in Jesus, God the Father takes our sin and its punishment and gives it to Jesus, and takes Jesus' perfect record of obedience (His righteousness) and gives it to us. Not only do we stand before God forgiven, but also clean and acceptable before Him because we have the very righteousness of Jesus. This truth gives us confidence, boldness, and joy as we approach God in worship now and in eternity.
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Posted April 2nd, 2011
This song is a cry for help in the struggle that every Christian faces against their remaining sin. What should we do when sin seems to "take such hold" on us that we feel powerless against it? The song reminds us that there is only one place to look - to Jesus, the source of forgiveness and grace. Remembering the sufferings of Jesus, as a result of our sin (the very sin we are struggling with) will remind us of the grief, anguish, sadness, and guilt that our sins deserve. But the very suffering that reminds us of our sin's penalty also reminds us of the incredible, gracious, love that God has demonstrated for us at the cross. Because Jesus suffered in our place, we need not face eternal suffering for our sin. Because Jesus rose again and conquered sin and death, we can experience His resurrection power in putting our remaining sin to death. We do this not by our own effort, but by starting at the foot of the cross where we are reminded of God's grace and the source of power in the struggle against sin.
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Posted June 26th, 2008
The doctrines of grace are sometimes affectionately referred to as a “family secret.” Many of us who now cherish God’s sovereignty in our salvation were not aware of these precious truths when we came to know the Lord. While they are certainly not to be kept secret, a person does not need a firm grasp of them in order to surrender their life to Jesus and trust in His saving work on the cross to pay for their sins and reconcile them to God. That is what this song is about. The original anonymous 19th century author says “I sought the Lord and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek him, seeking me.” We hear the gospel invitation that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13) and respond in faith, only to look back with a biblically informed perspective and realize that it was really God who gave us our faith and Him who was really seeking us. The Bible says that before we were saved we were “dead in our trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and that we did not seek for God (Romans 3:11) But God stepped into our self-absorbed lives and promised that there would be people who would seek Him. Listen to how Jesus puts it in John 6:37: “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.” Acts 10-11 recounts the story of Cornelius and his household trusting in Jesus and in 11:18 it says “God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.” Praise God for the gift of repentance and faith that enables us to seek Him! May we now stand in that same grace that irresistibly drew us!
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Posted April 21st, 2008
The Bible tells us that because of the disease of sin, our hearts are deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). And Jesus tells us that “from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22) All of our sinful behavior has its root in a sinful, prideful, heart and all too often we fail to recognize and repent of the attitudes and thoughts within us, tainting all that we do, as sinful in and of themselves. This is why Isaiah says that “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Isaiah 64:6), why even our songs of praise, our words of thanksgiving to God, or acts of charity, our service in the church are all unacceptable before God and worthy of condemnation before Him. Our holy God deserves to be the only object of worship and attention and He will not accept anything less. This song recognizes the fact that, in the words of the author of “The Dark Guest,” “I have a secret motive to eye my name in all I do.” But it does not stop at lamenting how thoroughly our sin has penetrated our beings, it goes on to declare the glory of the cross of Christ – that it can meet our deepest need! As we continue to trust in Christ’s work of atonement and propitiation for us on the cross, and as God reveals the deeper and deeper chasms of sinful motives that lie in our heart, we will gain a greater appreciation “of the great grace that saved such a wretch as I am.”
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Posted April 21st, 2008
This is a song designed to help the believer confess and repent of sin especially in the public assembly. Even though God commands that we confess our sins to Him and seek forgiveness throughout our lives and not just at conversion (1 John 1:9), we often fail to acknowledge specific circumstances, thoughts, or acts that were sinful. It is far more comfortable to admit that we are sinners in a general sense and to confess to God that we have sinned without divulging (or even remembering) the details. But God requires more and has commanded that we “acknowledge our sin to [Him] and not hide our iniquity” so that He might “forgive the guilt of our sin.” (Psalm 32:5) We need the Spirit’s work in us to help us be aware of and to prick our hearts for things like worldly thinking, a lack of awe over God’s power, thoughts that glorify ourselves, not cherishing the gospel, and not seeking God’s presence with warmth and enthusiasm. May this song help us to corporately sing (and pray) what Jesus taught us in the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses.” (Matthew 6:12)
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Posted October 18th, 2007
There are a few topics about which it is hard to find an abundance of truly good quality hymns. The Lord’s Supper is one of those topics and this song is one of the true gems of hymnody that combines doctrine with delight, teaching with thankfulness. This song is rooted in the gospel of grace; that God invited us to His table, enabled us to hear His voice and respond, and now calls us to dine on the peace and pardon available to us through Jesus’ blood. The second verse calls to mind the parable of the marriage feast in Matthew 22. The reminder that thousands would “rather starve than come” to Christ reminds us that without God’s enabling grace we would still be stubbornly hungry as well. When we gather as a church family around the Lord’s Supper we experience a foretaste of the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19) May God be glorified as we remember His grace in saving us and bringing us to His table!
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Posted July 25th, 2007
The doctrine of election (the sovereignty of God in choosing whom He desires to save) is often accused of making evangelism unnecessary, unfruitful, or even pointless. It is reasoned that if God has already chosen who to save then why should we preach the gospel and try to persuade all men to repent and believe in Jesus? While the Bible affirms election (Ephesians 1:3-14; Romans 9:8-24), it also affirms the personal responsibility of mankind to believe the gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:8) and the fact that God declares that all men, everywhere should repent (Acts 17:30). The two truths of God’s election and God’s call to salvation stand side by side in a glorious harmony that is beyond the comprehension of humans. This song moves from thanking God for causing us to be saved (affirming His sovereignty in our salvation) to how that truth should motivate us to missions. Election is actually the strongest motivation FOR missions since we have been told that God has chosen some to be saved from every nation (Revelation 5:9). If it were not for God stepping in to open blind eyes and allowing men to repent of their sin, no one would be saved. Praise God that because of His sovereignty in salvation preaching the gospel WILL bring men to salvation! Let this truth move us, individually, and corporately, to share our faith wherever God has called us.
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Posted June 8th, 2007
This song, based on the well-known text “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” is about the often-misunderstood doctrine of the sovereignty of God, specifically in the area of providence. The God of the Bible directs all things to fulfill His divine purposes, which have existed from the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:11). Yet at the same time He is actively involved with His creation, guiding and shaping it in real time, using the choices of people in a mysterious way to fulfill His purposes without diminishing their responsibility. These are, for certain, some of the deep things of God, which is probably why Cowper opened the hymn as he did. This song grapples with God’s sovereignty in the midst of difficult circumstances, times when all that we see are storm clouds above us. The certainty of His sovereignty and His promise to work all things for good for believers (Romans 8:28) will drive us to rest on the promise that the storm clouds are in fact filled with mercy and will burst in a glorious rain of blessings at God’s perfect timing. The song calls us not to judge God’s ways and workings but to trust Him for His grace, to trust that behind what we see as a frowning providence His face is, in fact, smiling upon us.
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Posted September 12th, 2006
This song beautifully illustrates the great exchange of the cross. Because of the work Jesus did on the cross in satisfying the wrath of God on our behalf, we bring all that we have done, including the things we thought were good ("so-called righteousness"), to exchange them for the merits of the Son, Jesus. Yet the believer desires to bring even more than simply his dead works to the Lord. We desire to bring the glory we once took in our works and nail it to the cross. What can the response be to such a great exchange – our filthy works for Jesus' righteous works? The declaration that by faith we will cease the labors of our own righteousness, stop trying to earn favor with God, and rest in the work of Christ for us.
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Posted June 1st, 2006
Luke 18 records the Lord Jesus teaching on the nature of justification by telling the story of the Pharisee and Tax Collector. Pharisees were the respected religious leaders of Jesus' time. They lived outwardly moral and pious lives that many of us wouldn't come close to matching. In fact, Jesus never condemned the righteousness of the Pharisees, he even told his disciples that "unless [their] righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, [they] would not enter heaven." (Matt 5:20) The problem with the Pharisees was their motive for obedience. In Luke 18 Jesus explained how the Pharisee exalted himself by focusing on his moral life. In start contrast, however, Jesus praises the tax collector (a social outcast because of moral failures, perhaps think of a prostitute today) because instead of focusing on his works, he focuses on God's mercy as he begs "God, be merciful to me." This is the biblical "sinner's prayer" and it expresses the terms that God requires people to come to him on in order to be saved. We must acknowledge that nothing we have or do can ever allow us to stand before a holy God. Only God's mercy can save us from God's justice, and these two intersect only at the cross.
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