A great blog regarding suffering...

by Tim Challies. I highly recommend reading this post.

I was recommended by a friend to read Tim's blogsite and I've been blessed and encouraged through his writings and posts.

I also recommend Sam Shin's site (if you don't have it linked). Another great resource for your soul!

Justification and Sanctification

From "Of First Importance"

Justification and Sanctification

Posted: 16 Jul 2008 12:32 AM CDT

“But now there are two special branches of salvation, namely, justification and sanctification; and these being two differnet things, faith acts upon Christ for them in a different manner. Faith acts upon Christ for justification, as he is a Jesus, or by receiving him as a Jesus; faith acts up Christ for sanctification, as he is a Lord, or be receiving him as Lord.

In justification we receive him as a Jesus, to be saved from the guilt of sin; in sanctification we receive him as a Lord, to be delivered from the power of sin. Now, though both these acts of faith go together, to make up saving faith, though they be inseparable from one another in the same faith, yet they differ, as the eye and the ear in the same head; for, as we do not see with the ear, nor hear with the eye, so neither are we justified by that act of faith that receives Christ as a Lord, for sanctification, but by that act of faith that receives him as a Jesus, for justification; we are not justified by that act of faith that receives Christ as a King, but by that act of faith that receives Christ as Priest.”

- Ralph Erskine, “And Walking in Him, Opened,” in The Works of Ralph Erskine, p. 243, vol. 24

One Appeal: His Mercy

From subscription "Of First Importance"

“When I come to the Lord after I’ve blown it, I’ve only one argument to make. It’s not the argument of the difficulty of the environment that I am in. It’s not the argument of the difficult people that I’m near. It’s not the argument of good intentions that were thwarted in some way.

I come to the Lord with only one appeal; his mercy. I’ve no other defense. I’ve no other standing. I’ve no other hope. I can’t escape the reality of my biggest problem; me! So I appeal to the one thing in my life that’s sure and will never fail. I appeal to the one thing that guaranteed not only my acceptance with God, but the hope of new beginnings and fresh starts. I appeal on the basis of the greatest gift I ever have or ever will be given.

I leave the courtroom of my own defense, I come out of hiding and I admit who I am. But I’m not afraid, because I’ve been personally and eternally blessed. Because of what Jesus has done, God looks on me with mercy. It’s my only appeal, it’s the source of my hope, it’s my life. Mercy, mercy me!”

—Paul David Tripp, Whiter Than Snow (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), 22

Vigilance

One of the common but serious mistake that I'm seeing more and more as of late is that I'm not vigilant about protecting myself from the pitfall of sins and temptations, and primarily in the issue of pride. For example, in my workplace where I see so many patients a day, I can easily become so self-dependent on my ability to treat through all that knowledge that I have, and training that I received from school and such. But when I face a difficult patient and when my knowledge base becomes a shriveled prune, I become frustrated and more prideful.

So how does that related to being a vigilant person? For one, because I'm so prone to be self-righteous and my sinful nature loves to boast in myself, even in good things in life that God bestows in us such as my ability to work can certainly become a place to breed my pride. So I would have to approach work with the expectations that WHEN I WILL be tempted to self-justify, I would need to preach the Gospel to myself.

By definition, vigilant means being "alertly watchful especially to avoid danger." (according m-w.com). That means one would have to expect that there WILL be danger, and not foolishly thinking that everything is alright just because you had a good quiet time or was inspired through a good book reading and such. While those things could definitely affect the person to grow, it would be foolish to think that rest of day is "a piece of cake" because of one had done those things that I mentioned.

So how does one become Biblically vigilant? I'm still finding out. But I do know this. It must start from God. I cannot will myself into thinking that I can change or grow in maturity simply by working harder. If not careful, it could become self-righteousness. But a great way to start is to survey the Cross. Look at what Christ has done for you and I on the Cross. Our sins have caused Him to bear the Holy and Rightful wrath of God. There we see that our sins were So great and so horrific that it took Christ, perfect Son of God to be crucified.

But it does not stop there. We must continue in storing up His Word (and I believe Jerry Bridges have already shared with us regarding how he prepares himself everyday in preaching the Gospel).

Some other practical applications for all of us. (no specific order of importance)

1) Memorize and dwell and meditate the Word of God throughout the day.
2) Pray throughout the day. It's ironic because I tell my patients to do certain exercises for better posture and such, throughout the day! Yet the same application is true for being a vigilant person. Asking God to write His Word in our hearts.
3) Share it with others with intention of encouragement in the Gospel!

I'm sure there are other ways, but Ephesians 6:10-20 is clear about the need for vigilance:


10Finally,^(M) be strong in the Lord and in^(N) the strength of his might. 11^(O) Put on^(P) the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against^(Q) the schemes of the devil. 12For^(R) we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against^(S) the rulers, against the authorities, against^(T) the cosmic powers over^(U) this present darkness, against^(V) the spiritual forces of evil^(W) in the heavenly places. 13Therefore^(X) take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in^(Y) the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore,^(Z) having fastened on the belt of truth, and^(AA) having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and,^(AB) as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up^(AC) the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all^(AD) the flaming darts of^(AE) the evil one; 17and take^(AF) the helmet of salvation, and^(AG) the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18praying^(AH) at all times^(AI) in the Spirit,^(AJ) with all prayer and supplication. To that end^(AK) keep alert with all perseverance, making^(AL) supplication for all the saints, 19and^(AM) also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth^(AN) boldly to proclaim^(AO) the mystery of the gospel, 20for which I^(AP) am an ambassador^(AQ) in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."


Have a great day in the Lord!

Pride and Contempt

“He also told his parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” Luke 18:9

J.Bridges reminds us that seeing pride in others is so much clearer and easier than to see it in oneself. The outworking of pride can be very obvious at times – i.e. boasting in your abilities to others that one will continuously desires to draws attention to one’s self. Sometimes it is not so obvious as the outworking of pride may not be so threatening to others. For example, something that I battle frequently is receiving complements from others at work (as well as other areas). When others encourage or thank me for something that I did for them, I often try to downplay it and respond quickly with an encouragement of my own (which sadly enough it may not be so genuine or well-thought out) as though I must return the favor. This is a hidden form of pride – false humility.

But what about those prideful lies inside of us that entice us to think we are better than others in _____ (you fill’n the blanks). In the book of Luke, Jesus warns us through the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), that our self-righteousness blinds us from the reality of our sins, and therefore relying on own merit of being justified before God. But the shocking word here is ‘contempt.’ In verse 9, those people (most likely the Pharisees) “trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” (Luke 18:9)

The definitions of the word contempt are listed below:

–noun

1.	the feeling with which a person regards anything considered mean, vile, or worthless; disdain; scorn.

2.	the state of being despised; dishonor; disgrace.

3.	Law. a. willful disobedience to or open disrespect for the rules or orders of a court (contempt of court) or legislative body. b. an act showing such disrespect.

Now I’m no lawyer but I know that in court, showing contempt in front of a judge can have severe consequences since it implies that you are in total disrespect to the judge and to the legal system. In the same way, those are the implications of self-righteous ones; it is not only executing one’s self-justification before God, it is taking an offense to God with a defiant fist held up in the air shouting, “I’m good enough for my own salvation and I don’t need a Savior to depend on!” And yes, it is also contempt to others as well, which is to disdain or despising everyone else. But we must foremost understand that self-righteous heart in form of pride offends God and bruises His love for us in Christ. And as one of many consequences of it, we turn out often hating others because of it. It’s THAT subtle and deadly.

Pride. No wonder God hates it (Proverbs 16:5).

Road Rage

Yesterday afternoon I noticed a lady with a baby stroller was beginning to walk across on a busy intersection. The pedestrian light was turning red as the light to turned green for the cars and myself. Yet I noticed she was still walking extremely slow as not hesitating about incoming traffic (she was about little over 1/2 way to the other sidewalk) which forced me and others cars to stop middle of the intersection. She immediately became furious because of this and started directly pointing fingers at me saying, "I have a baby! Stop!" with possibly mixture of some not-so-nice words (though I can't confirm because we had windows up). Now I must tell you I was nowhere near hitting her or her baby as I just accelerated off the intersection line and stopped. While I remained in position I also pointed the finger towards my green intersection lights to prove that I had done nothing wrong because I HAD the RIGHT away. To my mind she was the one did wrong for not crossing the sidewalk on time and not only that, being negligent about protecting her little one especially from all other dangerous incoming cars. Now, she did not appeared to be insane or a crazy person, only typical mother with a nice red stroller.

She eventually walked across and I drove past her. I was amazed and perplexed by her reaction and my conscious was not settling well within me. Because for one, I thought I had obeyed the law. Two, she clearly felt like she OWNED the road and it didn't matter whether the pedestrian light is red or green, she was going to have her way and everyone else is going to follow and adapt to her. But there was something in me, just didn't feel right. I know that I needed to show grace but I just kept thinking, 'that lady is lucky that I'm not a gangster."

Last night I was reminded of Jeremiah 17:9 which was the devotional for that morning. It says:

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?

I realized that even if I was right in that I had the right away, (which may not be correct because I believe all pedestrians have the right away, right?) I couldn't get past the fact that being right was all that it mattered because I had obeyed the law in my own terms. What really shook me was her response to it. Imagine you did something right and you clearly knew that other person was wrong yet that person is telling you that you are wrong. How would you respond to that?

Perhaps the Pharisees felt the same way. All their life, they thought they've obeyed the law and that to them, that was their righteousness. So imagine this person called Jesus who totally turned their life upside down by revealing to them, they've not only been ever so wrong but they are not even close to being right. To the Pharisees in their narrowed minded man-centered view, they became furious just like I became furious, because they could not see beyond their hopeless view of self-righteousness. It is one thing to be prideful that you had obeyed the law, but it's another thing when someone else telling you that you are actually still wrong despite your feeble obedience to the laws.

I was shocked. This time, not so such with the road rage incident but the realization of my sinful heart because it resembled so closely to the Pharisees. Am I that right? What a fool I was that moment. But should I be all that shocked? Someone once said, "you are FAR FAR worse than what you appear to be." I am! I am! I am far worse but the sobering thing about this incident is that, it's just a scratch from the surface of my sinful heart. It's true, our hearts, and my sinful nature of my heart is particularly desperately sick and needs continual and daily mortification of sin by the power the WORD and His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:13). Thank You LORD for saving a wretch like me!

Lesson 3: “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth”

To recap, the last two parts of the Beatitudes spoke of the realization of our need for a Savior because we have absolutely nothing to offer before God to appease His rightful wrath. This is due to our sins that separated us from God as in His nature He cannot co-exist with sin. While the first command by Jesus, “Bless are the poor in spirit” spoke of our deepest need for a Savior and in turn humility, the second command, “Blessed are they that mourn” is in nutshell, a response to our utter hopelessness outside of Christ. One may also say that it is to mourn over sinful nature of ourselves as well as others that causes us to mourn. It is to survey his/her own heart and say, “Woe is me! What a wretched man I am!” as to get a deeper and more realistic realization of how sinful our hearts are before God.

Now we turn to the third command by Christ, the meekness. So what is meekness? Before exploring that, we should discover what meekness isn’t. It is not prideful or related to a natural quality of mankind. In other words, it’s innate or something that is inherent to natural man. Nor does it mean being nice as I prone to think. It does not also mean “weakness in personality or character.” MLJ says that it doesn’t mean “a spirit of compromise or ‘peace at any price.’ We know this to be true as nowhere in the Bible says, “Blessed are the ones who are peacekeepers.”

Sonship (http://www.whm.org/grow/sonship) speaks briefly about this topic. One topic was about being peacekeeper vs. peacemakers. I confess that prior to that lesson, I couldn’t make a clear distinction between peacemaker and peacekeeper. I just thought as long as there is ‘peace,’ everything must be fine and God is happy with it. The dangerous part of that thought process is the driving force behind peacekeeping. Why? Because often times, I would try to be the mediator or be passive for the sake of avoiding potential conflicts due to fear of men. But sometimes more than that, defending my reputation which I considered more important than the love of Christ or the opportunity of repentance and faith in Christ. Yet this is still and will always be a daily battle for me on earth. Nevertheless, the hearts of peacekeepers are unbelief and often self-righteousness as they rarely see the magnitude of their own sins and yet so quickly see other’s flaws:

(Luke 6:42)

How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

But what’s more saddening about peacekeepers is that it often results in alienation to others and God, because of the overwhelming desire to self-protect their reputation. So how are peacemakers different? That is to be explored later but in a nutshell, it is to humbly and willingly to be trustful and honest and “to boldly pursue others for their reconciliation with God and ourselves.” So it is also the desire for sanctification of self and others. The goal for them is ultimately God’s glory and other person’s good. So again, it’s self-centeredness vs. God-centeredness.

Now going back to what IS meekness, MLJ says it is “essentially a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others.” So it requires two main things:

1) My attitude towards myself

2) Expression of that in my relationship to others.

So how does my attitude towards self-look like? We already spoke of “Being poor in spirit.” Thus, a “man can never be meek unless he is poor in spirit. A man can never be meek unless he has seen himself as a vile sinner.” MLJ urges that there must be ABSENCE of pride since it would be contradictory to have pride and to be meek. It also means, “he does not assert himself” like being nice or friendly or warm that may be related to one’s personality rather than from the Spirit. For example, one can be more prone to be nicer than others in subjective sense but this does not determine meekness. Lastly, MLJ states that truly meek also means “we no longer protect ourselves (from what others think of us), because we see there is nothing worth defending.”

Wow. We need to pulse here. Can you really say that about yourself? Can you honestly confess that you really are not that important or worth defending? From Biblical sense it’s pretty clear isn’t it?

“When a man truly sees himself, he knows nobody can say anything about him that is too bad…The man who is truly meek is the one who is amazed that God and man can think of him as well as they do and treat him as well as they do.”

So if one understands that there is nothing inherently valuable of himself, then inevitably his heart will be teachable and readily available to learn from a higher being, namely our God Jesus Christ. MLJ references the ideal model who is ultimately and always Christ. He does in reference to 1^st Peter chapter 2. It is to follow God’s step even when we are unjustly accused or wronged. More specifically see verses 18-25.

Once we are able to see that we are completely nothing on our own but are saved by God’s grace alone, then we are able to take heed to other people’s corrections, rebuke, or encouragements rather than being offended and playing defensive tackle. That is the gist of the expression of the relationships in a Gospel centered community that understands grace and expresses itself in love because it is readily available to serve and encourage each other and learn, and considers others better themselves. Thus, HUMILTY and MEEKNESS!

Lastly, the “meek already inherit the earth in this life…A man who is truly meek is a man who is always satisfied, he is a man who is already CONTENT.”

Because if a person has the best thing in the whole world why would he be discontent? Yet this is a daily battle and not a one-time event. The Spirit of God and never produced by a natural man, also solely drives it. Even a monk cannot make himself truly meek that satisfies God unless the Gospel, namely the Triune God, transforms him.

Someone once said, “we are far worse than we really think” when surveying our hearts. This is not to condemn ourselves but rather to strive for “poor in spirit.”

So I leave you with some application questions:

1) How do you view yourself before man?

2) How do you view yourself before God and His infinite holiness?

3) Are there things in your life that hinders you from being truly meek? If so, how are they dealt with? Do you preach the Gospel to yourself daily?

4) Is your goal in life ultimately serving yourself with keeping-up with your reputation or yearning for God’s glory for your lasting joy?

5) How do you receive criticisms from others? Do you fear other’s rejection of you if you would share your deepest struggles or sins?

6) Are you content and fully satisfied with God? If not, why not? If so, do you pray and reflect on the wrath and justice of God laid on Cross of Christ?