On my birthday last August, in my post "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain," I wrote of my own experience to press on to seek the Lord –– to receive grace upon grace –– as well as my desire for you to do likewise. Here are some excerpts from that post:

I was saved in November 1982, but only a few years ago, I came to a point in my Christian life when I began to be challenged by the Spirit of God to possess the land, much like what was happening in the book of Joshua...

Joshua 13:1 Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: “You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains..."

Joshua 18:1 Now the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of meeting there. And the land was subdued before them.  2  But there remained among the children of Israel seven tribes which had not yet received their inheritance. 3 Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: “How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?

To explain, it wasn't a physical land I was being challenged to go in and possess, but rather a spiritual land – the spiritual inheritance God has given me in Jesus Christ. . . .

. . . as I was reading ["The Memoir of the Rev. W.H. Hewitson," the] phrase: "God's glory in all that is glorious," ... I recalled Moses' prayer to God in Exodus 33 (where Moses asked God to show him His glory), and so I looked up the passage, which I'd read countless times before, had studied in BSF at least a couple times, plus I'd also read Lloyd-Jones' sermons on it (and had listened to some of those as well) –– but that night those words in Exodus 33 came alive to me in a way they hadn't before, particularly verse 13:

Now therefore I pray if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight, and consider that this nation is your people.

I found this mind-boggling and exhilarating... Here is Moses, who has already found grace in the eyes of God. But Moses is not content with that. He's found grace, but there he is asking to find grace! There's that holy discontentment! He's going back to God and importunately pleading: "I want to know You! I want to receive more grace from You!" And then, if you keep reading the passage, God grants Moses his request, but even at that point, Moses doesn't stop, he pleads with God to show him His glory! I can't explain it you, but the Rock just split open for me at that moment. Now the perplexing thing to me, as I said above, is that I'd heard these things all over the place in Lloyd-Jones teachings for a couple years prior to that time, but all of a sudden my heart and my eyes were opened, and now they were made to be real possibilities for ME – much like Paul had been praying for the Ephesians in chapter 1. I found myself embracing those possibilities and promises with all my might. The Spirit blows how, when, and where He wills! O! Rejoice with trembling before this sovereign, good, and gracious God of glory! And then examine the content of the prayers you are regularly praying. How do they compare to Moses' prayer here? How do they compare to Paul's prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3? . . .

My purpose in writing all this to you, and my purpose in much of my writing here, is to tell of God's righteousness and salvation, to declare God's strength and power, that is, to remind you that there are streams of Living Water abundantly available to all the saints. To declare to you that in Christ there is an infinite spring of life (not a limited well) – but all too often we fail to ask, seek, and knock for these things because we don't even understand they are available to us. I see far too many of you hewing and drinking of broken cisterns and strange waters. I am writing to urge you to pray for a holy discontentment such as Moses had and to seek to know and to experience the great and glorious possibilities of the Christian life.

And, dare I say it, and I don't mean to sound unthankful at all, and I don't want to be misunderstood here –– so often we settle for first grace, and we don't press in and onward and upward to ask for more! Jesus Christ gave Himself in our place, and through His body and blood He has made a way for all believers to begin to experience infinite grace, glory, love, light, life, comfort, and joy –– but what are we doing about it? My brothers and sisters, there IS spiritual land to be possessed! Are you being negligent like the Israelites? No wonder so many of you are weary, fainting, and languishing. We can't expect to run the race set before us apart from God's supplies. Can you really expect to flourish in times of famine, to be sustained in the Valley of Baca (the thirsty or weeping valley), to persevere with joy, or to bubble up with living water to a thirsty world if you aren't drinking of Christ and if you aren't seeking to drink deeper and deeper of Him?

Caleb's example to this 54-year old:  Don't stop satisfied!

One of the greatest dangers of the Christian life is for us to stop short of possessing and enjoying all of the spiritual inheritance God has for us. I have a close spiritual friend and one of the exhortations that we constantly bring to one another is this:  "Let us not STOP SATISFIED!" Why do we do that? Because we know that each of us, no matter who we are, no matter our previous experiences, is in grave danger of stopping satisfied. I'm turning 54 years old today, and I love the account of Caleb I've cited below, the man who at 85 years of age is still pressing in and onward and upward for more of Christ. Why? He kept remembering the promises of God and he continued to embrace them –– for a full forty-five years!

Joshua 14:6 Then the children of Judah came to Joshua in Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him: “You know the word which the Lord said to Moses the man of God concerning you and me in Kadesh Barnea. 7 I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back word to him as it was in my heart. 8 Nevertheless my brethren who went up with me made the heart of the people melt, but I wholly followed the Lord my God. 9 So Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land where your foot has trodden shall be your inheritance and your children’s forever, because you have wholly followed the Lord my God.’ 10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as He said, these forty-five years, ever since the Lord spoke this word to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness; and now, here I am this day, eighty-five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war, both for going out and for coming in. 12 Now therefore, give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said.”

13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance. 14 Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. 15 And the name of Hebron formerly was Kirjath Arba (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim).

However long I live in this earthly tent, I am praying for God's grace to continue to abound to me so I might be pressing on in the same way Caleb did! O! God! Let me not stop satisfied! Give me this mountain!

What kind of life are we really living if we stop satisfied? Having received a sight of God's glory, are we not given freedom by the Holy Spirit to go from glory to glory? Having received grace, ought we not to be pleading for more grace? Like Joshua, I am old, and advanced in years compared with many of you, but I am praying God will grant me grace to possess all the land He has yet for me! The thought thrills me, for I am increasingly convinced that, as the Scripture tells us:

... the path of the just is like the shining sun,
That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.
(Proverbs 4:17)

. . .

My deepest desire and prayer is that along with me, you would not stop satisfied, but that God would grant you an enlarged and enhanced understanding of the inheritance He has for you, and along with that, an ever-increasing hunger and thirst to know Him. And I'll tell you this, as God does this for you, He will give you a desire to use it to His glory, for He always blesses us to bless others. As we freely receive, we are called to freely give. . . .

I'd encourage you to go and read that whole post, but I wanted to present that excerpt today in order to set the stage for the words of Susanna Anthony (1726-1791), a young woman who wasn't settling for or stopping satisfied with first grace, but was inflamed with a holy passion and a holy discontentment to seek to receive of His fullness grace upon grace. Miss Anthony prayed like Moses and embraced the promises of God like Caleb. (FYI:  In a previous post, consider ... our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony, I included a diary entry written by Miss Anthony about a year before the one I've included below.)

The meditations, prayers and desires of this eighteen-year-old youth put most of us to shame. May God give each of us grace to examine ourselves and our desires and consider our ways, so we don't waste our lives (waste Christ's life!) and squander the spiritual inheritance that is already ours in Jesus Christ. May God give us grace to seek to receive from His fullness grace upon grace as we ought –– for IF we have already found grace in God's sight, ought we not be hungering and thirsting for grace upon grace –– pressing on to know the LORD with a holy boldness, to find grace in His sight and to be shown His glory –– like Moses and Caleb and Susanna Anthony? God forbid we settle for first grace and stop satisfied, and be found negligent or slack in our pursuit of God for "God is the highest good of the reasonable creature, and the enjoyment of him is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied." ~ Jonathan Edwards (HT: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/taste-see-articles/jonathan-edwards-on-the-pilgrim-mindset).

Oct. 26, 1744. I have now just finished the 18th year of my age. Good God! to what little purpose have I lived these eighteen years! Ah. Lord, thou hast come these many years seeking fruit; but alas! how little hast thou found! How vilely have I requited thy care! and how incorrigible have I been, under all thy cultivations. But, sure I am, these unparalleled instances of ingratitude and rebellion have not stopped the current of thy unbounded goodness. Was ever mortal so favored before! It is too bold an assertion to say, infinite mercy could not go beyond, considered in itself; yet, when I look on it, as relating to me the most ungrateful, unworthy, ill-deserving of all the redeemed race, the chief of sinners, and most helpless of mortals, I am ready to cry out, Never a greater instance of divine mercy! It is two years since I gave myself up to God and his church; and publicly avowed the Lord, for my God. And, though I would lament my vileness, that I have lived so unbecoming one in covenant with a holy God; yet, O, Lord my God, what shall I render to thee for thy preserving and sustaining grace; that I have been enabled to resist most fierce and otherwise irresistible assaults?

   Yea, I will praise him, who has been the health of my countenance, and my God. It has been because thou hast been the health of my countenance, that it has been in any measure healthful, hitherto. Therefore will l still hope in thy mercy. O God of my former revivals, leave me not not. How many months have I passed without any sensible decline of the power of godliness in my soul? For near these two years, more especially, I trust I have made sensible progress in my christian course. This I dare assert, to the honor of free, unmerited grace. To thy name, eternal Jehovah, be the glory. Thy grace hath been cultivated in my soul, notwitstanding all my corruptions. I have been admitted to near converse with thee. Thou hast made such discoveries of thyself, that I have seemed, as it were, to behold thee with open face; and, in some degree, to be changed into thine image. These powerful discoveries have formed my soul to a holy calm and serenity; a deep abasement; holy, solemn, humble awe of the great Jehovah; with holiness to the Lord inscribed on all my powers; not only in holy raptures of joy, with the gracious manifestation of thy most endearing love; but sweetly swallowed up in the opening views and apprehensions of Deity. The glories of Jehovah I cannot describe; or even the sensible transforming power such discoveries of thyself have had on my soul.

   And O, what a despicable worm did I appear to myself, when thou wast pleased to pass before me in the glories of thy nature, and caused me to cry out, "Woe is me! I am undone! I am unclean! I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

   Yet, since thou hast been thus gracious, I entreat thee, O God, who art still the same, my almighty and faithful God, to show me thy glory. Lord, give me soul-quickening, soul-humbling, and soul-reviving and transforming views of thyself O Lord God, arise for my help. Entreat me not to leave thee; but suffer me, yea do thou strengthen me to a holy violence, to wrestle with thee, and tell thee, I cannot let thee go, my Lord, and my God. O, now admit me to a near converse with thee. Unveil thy perfections, so far as a mortal worm can bear. Lord, fill a finite vapor. Break in on my soul with divine power. Show me thy glory. I cannot withdraw my petition. Dear, ever gracious, all condescending Savior, condescend to grant my request. Shouldest thou now hold forth thy sceptre, and bid me ask what I would, this should be my immediate request, O give me transforming discoveries of thyself: Show me thy glory. Amen, even so, Lord Jesus. Amen and Amen.

Source: "The Life and Character of Miss Susanna Anthony. Who Died, in Newport, (R I.) June 23, 1791, in the 65th year of her age. Consisting Chiefly in Extracts from Her Writings, with Some Brief Observations on Them." Complied by Samuel Hopkins, Second Edition. (Portland, Maine: Lyman, Hall & Co. 1810), 71-72, underlining mine. (HT for the text: http://books.google.com/books?id=YO0QAAAAYAAJ)

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pierre-%C3%89douard_Fr%C3%A8re_-_Interior_Scene_with_Woman_Praying_-_Walters_371370.jpg by Pierre-Édouard Frère. Released into Public Domain by Walters Art Museum / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}

Related posts:

• consider ... our ways, the great cloud of witnesses, Susanna Anthony
• Amazing Grace . . . upon Grace ~ the 240th anniversary
• birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"
• Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
• Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
• Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
• Advent # 8: WHY HAS JESUS COME? "so that [we] might be WITH HIM" ~ Mark 3:14
• Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
• John 3:36a Whoever believes in the Son HAS eternal life (letter 64 on assurance & joy)
• "give me also springs of water" - Will you be an Achsah? (letter 66 on assurance & fighting for joy)
• Where do you go when the world is unlovely? (Psalm 84 & the theology of Biblical counseling)
• As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
• a little child set in our midst leads us into the New Year
• Phebe Bartlet – a child put in our midst ~ "Do you love Me?"

Amazing Grace 240th anniversary from The John Newton Project on Vimeo.

2013 is the 240th anniversary of John Newton's hymn Amazing Grace.

This brief video (2 mins 18 secs) shows how John Newton was inspired to write the hymn Amazing Grace for New Year's Day, Friday 1 January 1773.

John Newton wrote his hymn to accompany his sermon on 1 Chronicles 17:16,17. He drew inspiration from the life of King David in looking back to the past, looking around at the present, and looking forward to the future.

Note Newton's own words for the 6 verses towards the end of the video. Hope you can encourage others to sing his original words!

Amazing Grace holds the world record for having the greatest number of different recordings. The Library of Congress holds a collection of over 3,000 different recordings of Amazing Grace. It has become a song which reaches many people worldwide in many of life's circumstances - whether in joy or pain, celebration or suffering.

Newton's Amazing Grace sermon can be downloaded from www.johnnewton.org .

If you have already begun to know the blessedness of God's Amazing Grace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ . . . including . . . a spiritual sight of your wretchedness and lostness; profound humility; a broken and contrite spirit; a thankful heart; joy and peace in believing; knowing Jesus Christ Himself as your Help, your Shield, your Strength, your Portion, your Friend, your Bridegroom, and your Beloved; experiencing the Good Shepherd's goodnesses and mercies pursuing you and satisfying you all the days of your life; God's love shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of adoption by whom you cry, "Abba, Father!"; full assurance of faith; patience in tribulation; everlasting consolation and good hope . . .

John Newton was William Cowper's pastor, counselor and devoted friend. Reading through and reflecting upon Cowper's hymn "Dependence" (emphasis mine), we can begin to rightly examine ourselves and our desires for God and God's grace. . .

birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"
Advent # 9 WHY HAS JESUS COME? Adoption: the highest privilege the gospel offers ~ J.I. Packer
Grace flowing, abounding to us, Gifts for men, yea, the rebellious (Psalm 68:18)
"I cannot consider myself to have been a believer (in the full sense of the word)" ~ John Newton & myself
What is a nominal Christian?

Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Newton.jpg  / {{PD-1923}}

(Letter 157 on assurance and fighting for joy...)

For over three years now I've been writing on assurance and fighting for joy, beginning with this post. And I continue to write about it because the gift of assurance and joy which God makes available to all believers in Christ through the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in how we live our Christian lives day in and day out.

When faced with trials and temptations, when the world mocks us, when we begin to question our circumstances, when the devil insinuates doubts into our minds, are we as Christians fully persuaded, do we know Him whom we have believed, are we able to stand steadfast in the faith at any and all times? Do we have living water bubbling up and bursting forth from our hearts, testifying to the work of the Holy Spirit in us, who fills us with full assurance of faith and joy and peace in believing ~ like the Shulamite woman and the apostle Paul?

When circumstances around you come crushing in, when all your plans are upended, and all your hopes are dashed... in each and every one of your so-called "prison-places" . . .

• . . . are you able to sing with Paul and Silas?

Acts 15:24  Having received this order, he [the jailer] put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them...

Philippians 1:12  I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel...

Romans 5:1  Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4  and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5  and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 8:28  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

• . . . do you profess God Himself to be your perfect portion, exceeding Joy, and great reward –– and do you continue to make the Lord God your refuge even though it seems Providence is frowning upon you.

Psalm 73:25  Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26  My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27  For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28  But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

• . . . do you continue to bless the Lord for the privilege of being His child while traveling in this world as a pilgrim? Do you continue to trust Him and His ways for you, resting in His love and enjoying fellowship with Him, even in this Valley of Baca –– the thirsty and tear-laden land?

Psalm 84:5  Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6  As they go through the Valley of Baca
they make it a place of springs;
the early rain also covers it with pools.
7  They go from strength to strength;
each one appears before God in Zion.
8  O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;
give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9  Behold our shield, O God;
look on the face of your anointed!
10  For a day in your courts is better
than a thousand elsewhere.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
11  For the LORD God is a sun and shield;
the LORD bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
12  O LORD of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!

• . . . is your every thought, word and deed acceptable in God's sight? Does your every thought, word and deed reflect that you are living as more than a conqueror through Him who loved you?

Romans 8:37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• . . . are you able to rejoice in the Lord –– always? When the enemy comes flooding in, have you found the Spirit of God holding up a standard, has He brought you to the Beloved's banqueting house, that you know His banner over you to be love, with the peace of God coming to envelop your soul and guard your heart and mind?

Philippians 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

In other words, what I'm asking you is this:  Have you begun to know and to drink of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Living Water, through God's gift of the Holy Spirit, so living waters come flowing out of your heart, even in those "prison-places," even in the driest and thirstiest land?

Psalms 63:1: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

John 17:3  And THIS is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

John 7:37  On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to ME and drink. 38  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39  Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones spoke about three types of assurance we as Christians can have. I most recently blogged about those three types of assurance in my post Three Years Later: Dancing & Skipping with Mrs. Durham | Letter 147 on fighting for joy:

In his book, "Joy Unspeakable," Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote about three types of assurance that are available to the Christian (I blogged about that here and here, and I would encourage you to read both those posts.)  As way of quick summary, the first two types of assurance are based on: 1) deductions we make from the Bible, and 2) examination of our lives. Now here's The Doctor explaining the third type of assurance:

But there is a third type of assurance, which is the highest, the most absolute and glorious, and which differs essentially from the other two. How? Like this. You notice, in the first two types of assurance, that what we are doing is to draw deductions, as we read the Scriptures, perhaps. We arrive at the assurance by a process of reading, understanding, self-examination or self-analysis. It is a deduction that we draw from the premises given; and it is right and true. But the glory of this third and highest form of assurance is that it is neither anything we do, nor any deduction that we draw, but an assurance that is given to us by the blessed Spirit himself.

ADOPTION: THE HIGHEST PRIVILEGE (J.I. PACKER)

Over the past few months, our Sunday School class has been watching David Platt's video sermons series on Galatians. In his sermon "Free as Sons" on Galatians 3:26 - 4:7 . . .

Galatians 3:26  for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29  And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

4:1  I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2  but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3  In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

. . . Platt read an excerpt from J.I. Packer's "Knowing God" on adoption. I was able to locate a portion of the book that included that excerpt here, but today I'd like to bring you the fuller context of that quotation. As you read Packer's words below, I plead with you to examine yourself and your life and your experience of and your relationship to the living God in light of the Scripture, and to ask God to show you what Martyn Lloyd-Jones (ML-J) called "the great and glorious possibilities" of the Christian life, so you might begin to ask, seek, and knock!

Luke 11:13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Have you experienced the blessedness of adoption that is available to all the saints? Do you have the Spirit of the Son crying out within you, "Abba! Father!"? Do you see yourself as a son of God –– or do you see yourself as a slave? Are you living day in and day out like the older son in the parable of the prodigal son (can we call that living?); in other words, have you never experientially/experimentally known how great the Father's love is for you, and that all your heavenly Father has is already yours?

I John 3:1  See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Luke 15:31  And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours...'

Are you falling back into fear –– or has the love of God been shed abroad in your heart? Have you ever really known the Spirit Himself bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God? Have you received directly from the Holy Spirit that blessed assurance –– that Jesus IS yours (along with the Shulamite woman and Fanny Crosby)?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we've just finished celebrating yet another Christmas, but have you missed out once again on entering into the ultimate Christmas celebration? –– A celebration that goes above and beyond that first type of assurance, i.e. - above and beyond our professing: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so" ... to that third type of assurance (which is always rooted in and flows from the Biblical truths and doctrine), i.e. -  the Holy Spirit directly imparting to your soul the sense of the love of God which empowers you to proclaim with absolute certainty and authority:  "You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart!" –– that assurance which ML-J calls the highest, the most absolute and glorious. My brothers and sisters in Christ, God sent forth His Son into the world so that all the children of God (including you!) might not only know they are justified in the eyes of God, but also know what J.I. Packer calls "the highest privilege the gospel offers":  adoption as sons!

Galatians 4:4  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Romans 8:14  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15  For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17  and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Now, here's J.I. Packer writing on the blessedness of our adoption as sons:

Adoption: The Highest Privilege

Our first point about adoption is that it is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification. This may cause raising of eyebrows, for justification is the gift of God on which since Luther evangelicals have laid the greatest stress, and we are accustomed to say, almost without thinking, that free justification is God’s supreme blessing to us sinners. Nonetheless, careful thought will show the truth of the statement we have just made.

That justification—by which we mean God's forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel is not in question. Justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment; his law condemns us; guilt gnaws at us, making us restless, miserable, and in our lucid moments afraid; we have no peace in ourselves because we have no peace with our Maker. So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God, more than we need anything else in the world; and this the gospel offers us before it offers us anything else. The first gospel sermons to be preached, those recorded in Acts, lead up to the promise of forgiveness of sins to all who repent and receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord (see Acts 2:38; 3:19; 10:43; 13:38-39; compare 5:31; 17:30-31; 20:21; 22:16; 26:18; Lk 24:47).

In Romans, Paul’s fullest exposition of his gospel—“the clearest gospel of all,” to Luther's mind—justification through the cross of Christ is expounded first (chaps. 1—5), and made basic to everything else. Regularly Paul speaks of righteousness, remission of sins, and justification as the first and immediate consequence for us of Jesus' death (Rom 3:22-26; 2 Cor 5:18-21; Gal 3:13-14; Eph 1:7; and so on). And as justification is the primary blessing, so it is the fundamental blessing, in the sense that everything else in our salvation assumes it, and rests on it—adoption included.

   But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves. Some textbooks on Christian doctrine—Berkhof's, for instance—treat adoption as a mere subsection of justification, but this is inadequate. The two ideas are distinct, and adoption is the more exalted. Justification is a forensic idea, conceived in terms of law, and viewing God as judge. In justification, God declares of penitent believers that they are not, and never will be, liable to the death that their sins deserve, because Jesus Christ, their substitute and sacrifice, tasted death in their place on the cross.

This free gift of acquittal and peace, won for us at the cost of Calvary, is wonderful enough, in all conscience—but justification does not of itself imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge. In idea, at any rate, you could have the reality of justification without any close fellowship with God resulting.

But contrast this, now, with adoption. Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. In adoption, God takes us into his family and fellowship—he establishes us as his children and heirs. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is a greater.

The point has never been better put than in the following extract from The Doctrine of Justification, by James Buchanan:

According to the Scriptures, pardon, acceptance, and adoption, are distinct privileges, the one rising above the other in the order in which they have been stated . . . while the first two properly belong to (the sinner's) justification, as being both founded on the same relation––that of a Ruler and Subject––the third is radically distinct from them, as being founded on a nearer, more tender, and more endearing relation––that between a Father and his Son. . . . . There is a manifest difference between the position of a servant and a friend–– and also between that of a servant and a son. . . . A closer and dearer intimacy than that of a master and servant is said to subsist between Christ and His people. "Henceforth I call you not servants:  for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth:  but I have called you friends" (John 15:15); and a still closer and dearer relation is said to exist in consequence of adoption; for "Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7). The privilege of adoption presupposes pardon and acceptance, but is higher than either; for, "To as many as received Him, to them gave he power"––not inward strength, but authority, right, or privilege––"to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (John 1:12). This is a higher privilege than of Justification, as being founded on a closer and more endearing relation––"Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God." (I John 3:1) (pp. 276-77)

We do not fully feel the wonder of the passage from death to life which takes place in the new birth till we see it as a transition, not simply out of condemnation into acceptance, but out of bondage and destitution into the "safety, certainty, and enjoyment" of the family of God. This is view of the great chance which Paul sets out in Galatians 4:1-7, contrasting his readers' previous life of slavish legalism and superstition in religion (vv. 3, 5, 8) with their present knowledge of their Creator as their Father (v. 6) and their pledged benefactor (v. 7). This, says Paul, is where your faith in Christ has brought you; you have received "the adoption of sons" (v. 5 KJV); "you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir" (v. 7 RSV).

When Charles Wesley found Christ on Whitsunday in 1738, his experience overflowed into some marvelous verses ("The Wesleys' Conversion Hymn," Methodist Hymn Book, # 361) in which the transition from slavery to sonship is the main theme.

Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great Deliverer’s praise?

O how shall I the goodness tell,
Father, which Thou to me hast showed?
That I, a child of wrath and hell,
I should be called a child of God,
Should know, should feel my sins forgiven,
Blessed with this antepast of heaven!

Three days later, Charles tells us in his diary, brother John burst in with "a troop of our friends" to announce that he too was now a believer, and "we sang the hymn with great joy." Had you been there, could you sincerely have joined in? Can you make Wesley's words your own? If you are truly a child of God and "the Spirit of his Son" is in you, Wesley's words have already drawn an echo from your heart; and if they have left you cold, I do not know how you can imagine that you are a Christian at all.

One more thing must be added to show how great is the blessing of adoption––namely, this:  it is a blessing that abides. Social experts drum into us these days that the family unit needs to be stable and secure, and that any unsteadiness in the parent-child relationship takes its toll in strain, neurosis and arrested development in the child himself. The depressions, randomnesses and immaturities that mark the children of broken homes are known to us all. But things are not like that in God's family. There you have absolute stability and security; the parent is entirely wise and good, and the child's position is permanently assured. The very concept of adoption is itself a proof and guarantee of the preservation of the saints, for only bad fathers throw their children out of the family, even under provocation; and God is not a bad father, but a good one. When one sees depression, randomness and immaturity in Christians one cannot but wonder whether they have learned the health-giving habit of dwelling on the abiding security of true children of God.

~ from:  J.I. Packer's "Knowing God" (Downers Grove, Il: InterVarsity Press), Sons of God (Chapter 19), 206-209

Related posts:

Advent #1 WHY HAS JESUS COME? that we might have life & life more abundantly
Advent # 5 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might draw near to God | Even a Vapor
Advent # 7 WHY HAS JESUS COME? So we might be satisfied with Him
Advent # 8: WHY HAS JESUS COME? "so that [we] might be WITH HIM" ~ Mark 3:14

Lenten Reflections: Why did Jesus die? ACCESS! | Letter 140 on assurance & fighting for joy
Happy Father's Day: "Only the child cries, 'Abba, Father'"
learning to run without fear
Reflections on my Dad on his 107th birthday* (Letter 33 on assurance & fighting for joy)
"Abba! Father!"
Mrs. Turner & Charles Wesley's Pentecost | letter 142 on assurance & fighting for joy

Why not pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
postcards from England: are we excited over a dead fish and a car wreck?
The flags unfurled ... Christ's eternal banner | Lloyd-Jones ~ a third type of assurance - letter 118
The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
update w/ excerpt: Lloyd-Jones' sermons on the role of experience in Christianity
five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
birthday reflection: "the great & glorious possibilities" ~ "Now therefore, give me this mountain"

Our Twisted View of God
All things (even bad things) work together for good...
end of the year ... in the midst of heartache
rejoicing in the often unwanted but necessary gift

Scripture quotations from J.I. Packer, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. Other Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis mine.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glaspalast_M%C3%BCnchen_1891_110b.jpg  / {{PD-Art|PD-old-70}}

antepast. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/antepast (accessed: December 25, 2012).