Friday, September 15, 2006

A Righteousness That is by Faith...


"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith.'"

--Paul's Letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17



“…We must be very careful to understand faith as Paul uses the word, because he ties faith so closely to salvation. It is not something we must do in order to earn salvation – if that were true, then faith would be just one more deed, and Paul clearly states that human deeds can never save us (Galatians 2:16). Instead, faith is a gift God gives us because he is saving us (Ephesians 2:8). It is God’s grace, not our faith that saves us. In his mercy, however, when he saves us he gives us faith… Through the faith he gives, he carries us from death unto life (John 5:24).”

--Life Application Bible New International Version, excerpt, page 2027; Tyndale House 1991



“Remember this; or you may fall into error by fixing your minds so much upon the faith which is the channel of salvation as to forget the grace which is the fountain and source even of faith itself. Faith is the work of God's grace in us… “No man comes to Me,” says Jesus, “except the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs. We are saved ‘through faith,’ but salvation is ‘by grace’.”

--Charles H. Spurgeon



“Faith is a gift from God, so that no one may boast. The last bastion of pride is the belief that we are the originators of our faith…”
“Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it.”

--John Piper



“He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31). Is this your view of salvation? Are you giving the entire glory to God, or are you reserving a little for yourself? Are you saying that it is your belief that saves you? If so, you are detracting from the glory of God. The glory is entirely His –to the praise of the glory of His grace in which he has highly favored us in the beloved.”

--Martyn Lloyd Jones


"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."
--Hebrews 12:2a



By Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone, In Christ Alone, As Taught in Scripture Alone,
All For The Glory of God Alone!



Interesting Links: www.BiggerGOD.com; www.DesiringGod.org; www.ModernReformation.org; www.Monergism.com; www.Theopedia.com
"I believe that every particle of dust that dances in the sunbeam does not move an atom more or less than God wishes—that every particle of spray that dashes against the steamboat has its orbit as well as the sun in the heavens—that the chaff from the hand of the winnower is steered as the stars in their courses. The creeping of an aphid over the rosebud is as much fixed as the march of the devastating pestilence—the fall of sear leaves from a poplar is as fully ordained as the tumbling of an avalanche. He that believes in a God must believe this truth. There is no standing-point between this and atheism. There is no half way between a mighty God that worketh all things by the sovereign counsel of his will and no God at all. A God that cannot do as he pleases—a God whose will is frustrated, is not a God, and cannot be a God. I could not believe in such a God as that."


"There is no attribute of God more comforting to his children than the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe troubles, they believe that Sovereignty hath ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children of God ought more earnestly to contend than the dominion of their Master over all creation—the kingship of God over all the works of his own hands—the throne of God, and his right to sit upon that throne."

--Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)