IN CHRIST ALONE
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IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SAVED
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SAVED
OUR SIN
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SATISFIED
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SATISFIED
There was a time when this vast universe with our particular planet, sun, moon, and stars, only existed in the mind of God. There was a time when the Triune God foreordained this world to be fashioned by his words. A peculiar planet planned precisely for his prized possession. He created man in His image bearing His likeness. Man was created in His image to reflect His glory. This glory was marred when man decided to be his own god. However, this action did not thwart God’s plan as he foresaw and therefore planned its restoration.
God’s plans can never be thwarted because God can never be perplexed. He is not always pleased by our actions but he is never perplexed. God did not react to man’s sin but responds with His predetermined plan. Salvation was planned before planets were placed into orbit. God planned it from first to last. This Triune God consulted no one outside the Trinity concerning His plan. He did not seek advice from Gabriel nor did he call for a vote among angels. This scheme was the Creator’s scheme. Why was such a scheme schemed? Only for His glory! Only for the worship of His name!
This salvific scheme was not crafted like those of ancient mythology. It did not call for mortals to seek salvation. It did not call for one to sacrifice all in order to achieve salvation. God’s scheme stands in stark contrast to all other religions and mythologies. Fallen mortals cannot and will not seek God therefore God condescends to seek them. Therefore, God wraps himself in their flesh. Subjects himself to their temptation, trials, and tribulations. Yet He remains untainted by their world. Instead of demanding sacrifice for their sin He becomes the sacrifice for their sin. God who requires payment for sin becomes the recompense for sinners.
his scheme of salvation was not crafted like those of ancient mythology. It did not call for those fallen mortals to seek salvation. It did not call for one to sacrifice all in order to achieve salvation.
God who drew up this scheme
God was all in the drawing up of the scheme, and Christ was all in carrying it out. There was a dark and doleful night! Jesus was in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, which fell to the ground; nobody then came to bear the load that had been laid upon him. An angel stood there to strengthen him, but not to bear the sentence. The cup was put into his hands, and Jesus said, "Father, must I drink it?" and his Father replied, "If thou dost not drink, sinners cannot be saved"; and he took the cup and drained it to its very dregs. No man helped him. And when he hung upon that accursed tree of Calvary, when his precious hands were pierced, when:—"From his head, his hands, his feet,
now returns to a familiar scene
This story which began in the Garden There in the garden where this story started. A figure under great distress for He can find no rest. See Christ illuminated by Jerusalem’s moonlight.God was all in the drawing up of the scheme, and Christ was all in carrying it out. There was a dark and doleful night! Jesus was in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, which fell to the ground; nobody then came to bear the load that had been laid upon him. An angel stood there to strengthen him, but not to bear the sentence. The cup was put into his hands, and Jesus said, "Father, must I drink it?" and his Father replied, "If thou dost not drink, sinners cannot be saved"; and he took the cup and drained it to its very dregs. No man helped him. And when he hung upon that accursed tree of Calvary, when his precious hands were pierced, when:—"From his head, his hands, his feet,
In the garden Adam did fall
Now Christ returns to undo it all
See Christ vexed
for He knows what is next
A cup full of wrath awaits
this only can propitiate
He hears His Father say . . . .
This is the way.
I hear Him say.
He drank until it was dry
It is finished was His final cry
God drew up this story
who could have seen
for this gives him ultimate glory.
We have been from sin’s penalty
We have been from sin’s penalty
The story of Spurgeon’s conversion is widely known, but it may well be repeated, and it cannot be better told than in the words in which he himself presented it:I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now, had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Church. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved....
The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now it is well that preachers be instructed, but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was—"LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH" ()
He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimmer of hope for me in that text.
The preacher began thus: "This is a very simple text indeed. It says ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. It aint liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look.
"But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!" he said in broad Essex, "many on ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some say look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some on ye say ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ "
Then the good man followed up his text in this way: "Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me, I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! look unto Me!"
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
When he had . . . . managed to spin out about ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger.
Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, "Young man, you look very miserable." Well, I did, but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued, "And you will always be miserable—miserable in life and miserable in death—if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved." Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but look and live!"
We are being saved from sins power.
We are being saved from sins power.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought . . . . I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, "Look!" what a charming word it seemed to me. Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away.
There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and the simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, "Trust Christ, and you shall be saved." Yet it was, no doubt, all wisely ordered, and now I can say—
For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
"E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. . ."
That happy day when I found the Saviour, and learned to cling to His dear feet, was a day never to be forgotten by me . . . . I listened to the Word of God and that precious text led me to the cross of Christ. I can testify that the joy of that day was utterly indescribable. I could have leaped, I could have danced; there was no expression, however fanatical, which would have been out of keeping with the joy of that hour. Many days of Christian experience have passed since then, but there has never been one which has had the full exhilaration, the sparkling delight which that first day had.
We will be saved from sins presences.
We will be saved from sins presences.
I thought I could have sprung from the seat in which I sat, and have called out with the wildest of those Methodist brethren . . . "I am forgiven! I am forgiven! A monument of grace! A sinner saved by blood!"
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
My spirit saw its chains broken to pieces, I felt that I was an emancipated soul, an heir of heaven, a forgiven one, accepted in Jesus Christ, plucked out of the miry clay and out of the horrible pit, with my feet set upon a rock and my goings established . . . .
Between half-past ten o’clock, when I entered that chapel, and half-past twelve o’clock, when I was back again at home, what a change had taken place in me! Simply by looking to Jesus I had been delivered from despair, and I was brought into such a joyous state of mind that, when they saw me at home, they said to me, "Something wonderful has happened to you," and I was eager to tell them all about it. Oh! there was joy in the household that day, when all heard that the eldest son had found the Saviour and knew himself to be forgiven.(Taken from Iain Murray, ed., The Early Years (London: Banner of Truth, 1962), p. 87-90).
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SECURED
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SECURED
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SECURED
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SECURED
We have been saved from sin’s power.
We have been saved from sin’s power.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SATISFIED
IN CHRIST ALONE WE ARE SATISFIED
We are being saved from sin’s predilections.
We are being saved from sin’s predilections.
Predilection means to think favorably of something or to prefer something.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
The word believe is a verb in the present active tense. This means that it is an action without end.
We don’t kill sin through will power but through wonder and worship.
We don’t kill sin through will power but through wonder and worship.
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Whatever we behold we become.
Whatever we behold we become.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him.
Whatever we behold we beautify.
Whatever we behold we beautify.
Reflections on the Psalms.
The most obvious fact about praise — whether of God or any thing — strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless . . . shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise — lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game — praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least. . . .
I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: “Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?” The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. (93–95)
Whatever we beautify satisfies.
Whatever we beautify satisfies.
Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
This story which began in the Garden There in the garden where this story started. A figure under great distress for He can find no rest. See Christ illuminated by Jerusalem’s moonlight.God was all in the drawing up of the scheme, and Christ was all in carrying it out. There was a dark and doleful night! Jesus was in the garden, sweating great drops of blood, which fell to the ground; nobody then came to bear the load that had been laid upon him. An angel stood there to strengthen him, but not to bear the sentence. The cup was put into his hands, and Jesus said, "Father, must I drink it?" and his Father replied, "If thou dost not drink, sinners cannot be saved"; and he took the cup and drained it to its very dregs. No man helped him. And when he hung upon that accursed tree of Calvary, when his precious hands were pierced, when:—"From his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flowed mingled down,"
there was nobody to help him. He was "all" in the work of salvation.
http://www.romans45.org/images/indent.gifAnd, my friends, if any of you shall be saved, it must be by Christ alone. There must be no patchwork; Christ did it all, and will not be helped in the matter. Christ will not allow you, as some say, to do what you can, and leave him to make up the rest. What can you do that is not sinful? Christ has done all for us; the work of redemption is all finished. Christ planned it all, and worked out all; and we, therefore, preach a full salvation through Jesus Christ.