November 28, 2008
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Thanksgiving to God that salvation is all of grace (the gift you can't buy today or any day)
In the United States, today is Black Friday, the day when people hit the malls and shopping centers running (some well before sunrise) in hopes of finding some great deals on their Christmas shopping, all in pursuit of the perfect Christmas gifts...(See here for the news of a tragedy that happened today all because of people's frenzy in pursuit of those gifts.)
But no matter how much we may try, there's one gift not one of us can ever buy, our salvation.
From Martyn Lloyd-Jones[1]:
Salvation is all of grace. It was in spite of Joseph's brothers that Joseph became the savior of his brothers and all the family and whole of Egypt. And your salvation and mine is in spite of us and in spite of what we are. Indeed, all that we do is against it. Read the whole story of the human race; read it in the Bible, read it in your secular history books, and you will find that men and women have been busy trying the thwart the purposes of God. Adam and Eve would have gone on living in paradise if they had not created the problem by disobeying God.Men and women create the chaos. They boast about their government, their order, but they do not produce it: They are creatures of chaos. Like Joseph's brothers, they create the problems and the difficulties. And I repeat there is salvation for one reason only, and that is the grace of God. The Son of God did not come into the world because of the beauty of humanity or because of its glory. No, no!
O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.John Henry Newman, "Praise to the Holiest in the Height""When all was sin and shame"––and it was. It was a shameful as this: When the poor pregnant woman came to a little town called Bethlehem, she could not even get a room in a hotel; nobody would vacate a room for her. She had to go into a stable to give birth to her firstborn child. That is the world––"sin and shame"! Salvation is in spite of us! It is all due to the grace of God.
If you feel that you are in any way responsible for being a Christian or for your salvation, you can take it from me that you have not received salvation. If you are proud of your life, proud of your good deeds, proud of your activities, proud of your understanding, proud of your faith, proud of anything, you are denying the Gospel. It is all of grace. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8).
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.
II Corinthians 9:15
[1] Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "Glorious Christianity" (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 139-140. The whole book is composed of sermons the Doctor gave in 1966-67 on Stephen's address to the council in Acts 7. This particular excerpt is based on Acts 7:9-10, which deals with Joseph and his brothers and the great salvation God worked through Joseph on behalf of the entire nation of Israel as well as all Egypt.
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Comments (2)
Thank you so much for your comments today. I was struck by the incredible love of material goods that is demonstrated by the death of the WalMart worker. As adults we are incredibly materialistic, and between us and society this love of things is passed on to our children at very young ages. It seems like everyone is sad and feels like they lost out if they don't get expensive Christmas presents, leading people to miss seeing a young man dying on the floor under their trampling feet. Even in this year where our economy worldwide is crashing we continue to want 'things.'
I need to be reminded (just like all the shoppers) that what is most important in our lives is salvation, and that is free. It is the gift of God. It is all about grace.
Kelly
Hi Kelly,
Just as I was finishing writing this post yesterday, I found out about the Wal-Mart incident and was stunned. There is such a contrast between God's view of Christmas and man's, isn't there?
Yes, life is all about salvation but we lose sight, when we focus on the things that are seen rather than those that are unseen. We so often crave and seek after more and more "things" rather than hungering and thirsting for God alone, who is the only One who will fully satisfy our souls. We need those continuous reminders to keep our eyes on Him and set our minds on things above.
Karen