Salvation By Grace Alone and The Judgement Of Our Lives According To Our Works
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A Proof From your Need of Salvation by Grace Alone
I have been a Christian all my life, has there been 10 minutes in my entire existence when I have loved God with everything I am and everything I have; and who is the neighbour who thinks that I love him more than I love myself?
What if I would have come to you and said, "Write down the name of one of your neighbours on a piece of paper. And then I am going to go and meet that person and talk to that person and I am going to ask him if there is anybody in his acquaintance who loves him more than he loves himself. Do you think this man is going to name you? I am not asking for 50 neighbours, I am not asking for 10. But is there one neighbour who would say, "Oh yes, this person loves me more than he loves himself." This is the standard by which our lives are to be measured. This is what righteousness means: "To love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself".
No truer words I think were ever spoken than these by the saintly Anglican Bishop William Beveridge: "I cannot pray, but I sin. I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin. I cannot give alms or receive the sacrament, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions are still aggravations of my sins. My repentance needs to be repented of, and the very washing of my tears needs to be washed over again with the blood of my redeem."
So, let there be no thought of our goodness or righteousness. If you compare a 25 watts electric bulb with an 100 watts bulb, you might think that there is some difference, especially if you were right there reading a book by the light of each of those bulbs. But if you hold those two light bulbs up against the fiery furnace of the sun, the difference between those two bulbs is annihilated.
And so it is with us. There may be distinctions between us morally, in one way or another, but it is so appallingly minor and insignificant compared to the difference between us as sinners in the flaming furnace of God's holiness, purity, majesty, goodness.
Besides, a gracious heart will always think its own sins the worst. Like Paul, we too consider ourselves the chief of sinners. And we have to. It is right that we do because brotherly love will cause us to find excuses and extenuations for other people's sins.
Our heart will go out to David Berkowitz when we discover that he was born out of wedlock, adopted immediately into a family that never should have adopted him and a family that had no real affection for him. His mother and father moved to Florida, by themselves, when he was 15 years of age and left him on the streets of New York to fend for himself.
I can think of reasons for David Berkowitz sins. It's only for my own that there are no excuses whatsoever. Therefore my sin must be the worst. And so it is finally not so as surprising as it sounds that David Berkowitz should be in heaven one day. But that I should be, that you should be: each one of us thinking of his own situation...
"Soli Deo Gloria": to God alone be the glory for our salvation. His infinite mercy, joined with His infinite power, knowing God; receiving the forgiveness of our sins is the explanation for anyone of us going to heaven. But that is one pole of a continuum of truth regarding the judgement of our lives: our sin, so great that only divine mercy could cover it and everything about our salvation, every part and every aspect, God free gift to us in defiance to our ill desires.
I elaborated that point at some length because I now want you to feel the wrench as I turn to the other pole on this continuum of truth regarding the judgement of our lives.
Page 3 ⇦ Previous | Next ⇨ Page 5
A Proof From your Need of Salvation by Grace Alone
I have been a Christian all my life, has there been 10 minutes in my entire existence when I have loved God with everything I am and everything I have; and who is the neighbour who thinks that I love him more than I love myself?
What if I would have come to you and said, "Write down the name of one of your neighbours on a piece of paper. And then I am going to go and meet that person and talk to that person and I am going to ask him if there is anybody in his acquaintance who loves him more than he loves himself. Do you think this man is going to name you? I am not asking for 50 neighbours, I am not asking for 10. But is there one neighbour who would say, "Oh yes, this person loves me more than he loves himself." This is the standard by which our lives are to be measured. This is what righteousness means: "To love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind and to love your neighbour as yourself".
No truer words I think were ever spoken than these by the saintly Anglican Bishop William Beveridge: "I cannot pray, but I sin. I cannot hear or preach a sermon, but I sin. I cannot give alms or receive the sacrament, but I sin. Nay, I cannot so much as confess my sins, but my confessions are still aggravations of my sins. My repentance needs to be repented of, and the very washing of my tears needs to be washed over again with the blood of my redeem."
So, let there be no thought of our goodness or righteousness. If you compare a 25 watts electric bulb with an 100 watts bulb, you might think that there is some difference, especially if you were right there reading a book by the light of each of those bulbs. But if you hold those two light bulbs up against the fiery furnace of the sun, the difference between those two bulbs is annihilated.
And so it is with us. There may be distinctions between us morally, in one way or another, but it is so appallingly minor and insignificant compared to the difference between us as sinners in the flaming furnace of God's holiness, purity, majesty, goodness.
a gracious heart will always think its own sins the worst.
Besides, a gracious heart will always think its own sins the worst. Like Paul, we too consider ourselves the chief of sinners. And we have to. It is right that we do because brotherly love will cause us to find excuses and extenuations for other people's sins.
Our heart will go out to David Berkowitz when we discover that he was born out of wedlock, adopted immediately into a family that never should have adopted him and a family that had no real affection for him. His mother and father moved to Florida, by themselves, when he was 15 years of age and left him on the streets of New York to fend for himself.
I can think of reasons for David Berkowitz sins. It's only for my own that there are no excuses whatsoever. Therefore my sin must be the worst. And so it is finally not so as surprising as it sounds that David Berkowitz should be in heaven one day. But that I should be, that you should be: each one of us thinking of his own situation...
"Soli Deo Gloria": to God alone be the glory for our salvation. His infinite mercy, joined with His infinite power, knowing God; receiving the forgiveness of our sins is the explanation for anyone of us going to heaven. But that is one pole of a continuum of truth regarding the judgement of our lives: our sin, so great that only divine mercy could cover it and everything about our salvation, every part and every aspect, God free gift to us in defiance to our ill desires.
I elaborated that point at some length because I now want you to feel the wrench as I turn to the other pole on this continuum of truth regarding the judgement of our lives.
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