CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: The Free Gift of Faith Alone of 1 John 4:19
CHAPTER 2: A Devotional Study of Mark 1:15 Concerning Repentance
CHAPTER 3: A Devotional Study of John 19:30 Concerning the Sufficiency of the One Offering of Christ
CHAPTER 4: A Devotional Study of Romans 3:21-25 Concerning His Divine Righteousness
CHAPTER 5: A Devotional Study of Romans 4:1-8 Concerning Imputation & the Blessed Man
CHAPTER 6: A Devotional Study of Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:9 Concerning Faith Alone
CHAPTER 7: A Devotional Study of Romans 9:11, Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 Concerning No Works
CHAPTER 8: A Devotional Study of Ephesians 2:10 and James 2:24 Concerning Evidence of True Faith by Good Works
CHAPTER 9: Essential Dogma Connected to the Gospel of Faith Alone
CHAPTER 10: Sin, the Choice of Damnation, and Holiness
CHAPTER 1:
The Free Gift of Faith Alone of 1 John 4:19
These studies are meant to be brief. You have the responsibility to investigate each Scripture. I write in light of the Scriptures provided, but I encourage you to look into the true things of God in conformity to His Word. I leave you now to write on, and I commend you to God the Holy Trinity. Amen.
Where does the free gift of faith alone come from? Does it come from something within ourselves? Are we able to cooperate with God’s grace and Spirit? If we are dead in trespasses and sins, how can we demonstrate spiritual life? How can a spiritual dead man, believe that which is spiritual life? Is a physically dead corpse, in and of themselves, able to be alive when it is not?
The gift of faith alone is accomplished by God the Holy Spirit: He changes the heart of stone into a heart of flesh. We desperately need the Holy Spirit to make His people alive. Faith that is not born of the Spirit of God is not true faith. True faith is something that is born of the Holy Spirit.
We are unable to cooperate with God in believing the Gospel. We have no spiritual life in ourselves to truly believe. His people believe because we have been first loved by God. We did not love God first because of our inability, and bondage to Satan, and blindness in sin. It takes the Word of God and the Spirit of God to make His pre-converted elect alive.
Free will cannot save us, because it has its limits. We have the ability to choose to stand, or chose to sit. We have the ability to choose to write a book, or write a tract. Our free will ends where our inability begins. Could Lazarus make himself physically alive? He needed the Divine Deliverer to make himself physically alive. Therefore, without God’s initiative and divine intervention no one would be made alive: spiritually or physically.
Faith alone is a gift of God. No one on earth can grant true faith alone. Remember the warning of the Lord Jesus? Thieves and robbers seek to grant false hopes, and false faiths (John 10:8). Do not trust what the world produces: Satan’s ways are in deceit, and all malice mischief. What is of Satan is born of the world, but what is born of God is of righteousness in all holy truth; well-pleasing and all-acceptable in the sight of God.
Faith alone is born of the Holy Spirit, but counterfeits are born of the prince of the power of the air. Faith is the means or instrument of justification: we must be called by God into the chain of spiritual salvation. No one can by free will have the faith that is used as an instrument in justification. Have you forgotten the freedom of God in spiritual salvation? You would limit the freedom of God but not the freedom of man. The freedom of God is the way of the Spirit who changes the will of man from dead to alive. We are spiritually bankrupt (Romans 3) and spiritually corrupt: human beings are devoid of goodness in comparison to God. The goodness of God grants to His elect alone the Spirit of God who comes to quicken our hearts. Only true faith is granted by the Word of life and the Spirit of life.
What of repentance? Is repentance connected to faith? What does the Bible call us to do concerning faith? Herein is wisdom that we now turn to the doctrine of repentance.
CHAPTER 2:
A Devotional Study of Mark 1:15 Concerning Repentance
We must learn what this vital Scripture says. It is about faithful and living repentance. These must be the days of repentance. Do your days show a daily repentance in obedience to the Incarnate King? The time is now: submit and surrender to the Rock of Ages in faithful repentance. Faith is not devoid of repentance, and repentance is not devoid of faith. Faithful repentance is an on-going consequence of the Spirit of God and Word of God. If we live in a world of sin, the greatest rebel for goodness is all about contrite repentance. We live in a world that does not care about the heart and thought life. We live in a world that hates the true things of God. Repentance is the opposite of sin. Whence came the teaching of repentance over sin?
Repentance came by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by the word of Christ that we hear the doctrine of repentance. It is from the lips of the Lord Jesus that we hear of a transcendent righteousness. Repentance is a righteous act that fits within the doctrine of the all-cleansing blood of Christ. When we repent it is unto remission. Our sins are taken away because of Christ alone. If we obey the teaching-command of Christ on repentance, we will show to the world of darkness that we are the friends of Christ. The good news of repentance is a teaching born of the Spirit, but the teaching of a life not accountable before God is a life born of the world.
Christ preached the doctrine of repentance, but He never practiced it. He never practiced it because Christ never sinned. He lived and walked as a sinless man who was God Incarnate.
Heaven is filled with saints who have repented on earth. Hell is full of non-repenting sinners who are being punished in their being for their sins. Earth is a place of spiritual darkness and spiritual coldness: Christian repentance is rejected as absurd, and yet, how does it compare to the One who speaks only truth and never a lie?
Do you practice faithful repentance? Has your faith endured through the years? Does it dictate your being? Remember: faith is trusting Christ by repentance, and living in an acceptable fashion in the presence of God.
What is connected to repentance? Is it not the all-acceptable blood of the Lord Christ? To this we now turn.
CHAPTER 3:
A Devotional Study of John 19:30 Concerning the Sufficiency of the One Offering of Christ
Without the all-acceptable and all-approved sacrifice of Christ, repentance would not avail unto remission. Sinners need the one offering of Christ in their place. The true justice of God the Father must be satisfied. Christ came and satisfied divine justice for His elect sheep alone. He took their place. Sinners either have their sins punished on Christ or punished in their being in hell.
Was the one offering of Christ sufficient? As the Bible is sufficient for good works, so to is the one offering of Christ sufficient for those who apprehended Christ by faith alone. We need the divine and complete merit of Christ to form the grounds of justification. No other grounds will avail before the Father. If the grounds were something other then Christ, it would fail in everyway. Did someone else die in your place? Isn’t God sufficient in His very being? If God is sufficient in His very being; isn’t the God-man sufficient for how sinners become right with God?
The God-man died for sin for His people, but He died to the Father for sin. The appointed hour that the Gospel of John speaks about is the all-sufficient atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is able to save His people by His death. He was born to die, and completely took the place of His people. The Father accepts the atonement of Christ on behalf of His spiritual children.
Faith alone is by Christ alone. Who would dare to add to the finished work of Christ on Calvary’s Cross? Adding to His Cross-work is making the Cross nullified. His Cross-work is enough to take away sin unto all spiritual purity. The religions of men add to the work of Christ on His Cross by works-righteousness. Imperfect merit is devoid of perfect merit. The impeccable work of Christ transcends the creaturely “merit” of humankind. Who approved of God the Son save God the Father? Did the Father ever say “Listen to Another?” The Cross-work of Christ is the work of Another: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It is the work of Somebody who has inherent righteousness: it is a transcendent righteousness born of divine power.
The Father filled the cup of His Son with His death. The Son drank of the cup of the Cross with divine freeness. Christians do not benefit from the death of Christ with reprobative, malice sin: Christ died freely for His chosen. No other sacrifice will do save the all-true atonement of the Lamb of God. His cup was filled to the brim with the sorrows of sorrow, and He drank of it for the eternal redemption of His people.
The Cross-work is all about the righteousness of God: to this we now turn about the righteousness of Christ devoid of sinful works.
CHAPTER 4:
A Devotional Study of Romans 3:21-25 Concerning His Divine Righteousness
From whence cometh His righteousness? Is it of the Law of God? Is it of the sinner’s being? Who has wrought this sacred righteousness?
The God-man came and lived: His life was perfect and His death was perfect. Justification is by the work of divine righteousness! It does not come from the heart and mind of sinful man, but of the Heavenly Christ who is exalted above the heavens! Moses and the Old Testament prophets foretold about Christ who is our righteousness. The righteousness of Christ does not come from sinful man, but it is wholly of the Divine Christ.
We apprehend the holy light of His matchless righteousness by faith. The majestic righteousness of Christ is all about the divine power of sovereign grace. How can any doubt that Christ is enough to get His people to heaven by His life and His death? O! the treasure of treasures! The depths of the shining beauty of His heavenly righteousness breaks the barriers of darkness, sin and hell. Divine righteousness is found in Christ and in Him alone.
The darkness of sin and falling short of God’s glory is man’s problem. Christ came to save that which is lost. He came to do the work for us because we were wholly unable ourselves. The holy gift of His righteousness is a decision in the freedom of God: whatsoever seems right in His sight is granted the righteousness of His Son.
The Cross-work of Christ is all about the appeasing sacrifice of Christ Jesus in behalf of His elect people. Free faith fits into the plan of grace: the grace of His beloved righteousness is about the totality of His work and the free application of it to those who have a faith born from on High. The wrathful-filled God of the Bible against sin passes over the sins of His people: assured atonement has been made for His chosen.
The Final Judgment will be a joyful day for true believers in Christ, but it will be a day of horror for false believers. No accusation from Satan will avail against His chosen here or later: charges against the believer in Christ will be answered by the Cross-work of Christ in the believer’s place. During these dark times; Satan is silenced by the Cross of the Lord Christ, and he will be silenced by it on the Last Day, and Satan’s sins will find him out in whom no forgiveness shall dwell.
CHAPTER 5:
A Devotional Study of Romans 4:1-8 Concerning Imputation & the Blessed Man
Mere human works do not fit into the divine work of Christ. We are justified by the righteousness of Another. We need divine righteousness of Christ Jesus accounted to us by faith alone. The imputation of His righteousness is not an infusion of grace: both are historically distinct and separate. We dare not mix the two together, but recognize their separateness. We are reckoned by God as righteous through His grace of imputation: Christ’s righteousness is accounted to His faith-believing sheep. We are given the divine righteousness of Christ by the grace of faith alone.
We desperately need the unified righteousness of Christ. We are seen by God as spiritually naked: the righteousness of Christ covers the shame of His people as a shining garment of divine, white clothing. Without the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, we would not have the proper spiritual clothing, but forever be in outer darkness. Those who wear the light of His matchless righteousness will never lose their position with God the Father. David was given the imputed righteousness of Christ apart from works. Those who possess the imputed righteousness of the Divine Lamb are the blessed men of Romans 4. Imputation is a word hated by the hosts of Satan, but it is a divine joy to the ears of beloved saints, and where elect angels desire to look into.
The blessed man has his sin forgiven: they were placed upon Christ the Divine Redeemer. The blessed man has his sins covered: God imputes to us a covering of unified righteousness that solely avails before the Divine Father. Sin is not imputed to the blessed man: only the divine merit of Christ is reckoned to whom the Spirit has called.
Christ is not the blessed man of Romans 4. He never had a need to receive forgiveness, nor did He ever have a need to cover His sins. Christ was and is harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. The God-man did not possess the capacity to sin: Christ’s will was immutability fixed to sinlessness in all matchless righteousness.
We need His blessed righteousness: Christ was made sin so that His people may become the righteousness of God in Him. Herein is wisdom about double imputation: Christ was given our sin, and we were given His righteousness.
CHAPTER 6:
A Devotional Study of Romans 3:28, Galatians 2:16 and Philippians 3:9 Concerning Faith Alone
We are declared righteous (opposed to the Roman view of being made righteous) on the basis of the Lord Christ. It is legal or forensic declaration by God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is not a legal fiction, because it is based in Scriptural truth. It is an act of God and not a process. As the Cross is a once and for all offering for sin to the Father, so justification is an-once-and-for-all act of God: an event born of heaven, where no hellish flames can touch.
We are given the gift of faith alone apart from works. Faith is that which knows that Christ’s righteousness is sufficient for how I am declared righteous before God. The gift of Christ is the gift of His righteousness. When God the Father sees us through His only-beloved Son, He sees us righteous in light of Christ’s unified righteousness.
No flesh shall be justified by the works of the law. Faith is the sole mechanism that God has designed in how we become right before God. Let us not dare add to the gift of faith, but produce from it fruitful works of every good deed and every right way.
If we add to faith works, we nullify it. If we subtract faith from the instrument of justification, we destroy the instrument of how we are declared right before God.
No one has been justified by death. The elect will respond in true faith apart from the addition of good works.
I posses the righteousness of God by faith in Christ: redemptive righteousness is given to His elect children from Christ alone. No righteousness will ever save, except the holy righteousness of the divine Son of Man.
CHAPTER 7:
A Devotional Study of Romans 9:11, Ephesians 2:8-9 and Titus 3:5 Concerning No Works
I confess that unconditional election was a teaching that made me tremble. The Divine Word teaches the choice of God in the election of His sheep. Election is the choice of God devoid of foreseen actions: whether good or evil. It is about the purpose of God: it is connected to sovereign regeneration and effectual calling. The Spirit comes and changes us so we believe. The meaning of this verse is summed up in this way: God freely chooses His own by the act of sheer grace in spiritual salvation.
Justification is by faith alone: this faith does not come from within ourselves, but it is the instrument of how I become right with God.
Effectual calling and justification is freely of grace as is sanctification and glorification. Effectual calling is by the monergistic work of the Spirit; justification is by the work of Christ alone; positional sanctification is by a past action of God’s grace in holiness in a past tense; progressive sanctification is by the pursuit of holiness where God grants His people grace; and glorification is also by a past action of God, and glorification is by our transition from sinner to sinless.
Righteousness born of men’s religion is a defective righteousness, but only the lovely, pure, and holy righteousness of Christ is availing. It is the truest, divinest, purest, loveliest and happiest righteousness in all existence.
Do you possess His unified, imputed righteousness?
CHAPTER 8:
A Devotional Study of Ephesians 2:10 and James 2:24 Concerning Evidence of True Faith by Good Works
I plan to write Ephesians 2:10 with more in-depth detail. For now, I have a few points to state. Now we discuss the nature and role of good works that come from a true faith.
We are His workmanship. We are Christians who are about good works. The mission of the Christian is good works. The scope of the Christian life is good works. Our very being is after the conformity of Christ: He lived for good works, and so must we. Do you act as His workmanship?
We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Those who are in Christ Jesus are meant to do good works. Our purpose in existence is to glorify God by our good works. We are created unto good works. We were made to do good works. It doesn’t add to our faith, because faith alone is the instrument of justification. We are vessels to be used by God as instruments of goodness. We are called to possess every good deed. The consequence of faith alone is all about good works. The essence of Christian living from true faith is good works. After spiritual life and justification, we are called to be saints who possess works of holiness. If there is ever a time when a human institution advocates works of wrongdoing this verse is the greatest opposition to their counterfeit cause.
God afore prepared that we should walk in them. We were predestined to do good works. In eternity past, God foreordained us to do good works. Good works are after the order of the grace of providence in the outcome of sheer goodness for all creation. Faith is like a flowing spring that produces life: a life of goodness. The mission of faith is to act in goodness: the essence of pure religion is to help widows and orphans in their trouble. This is in the context of the true faith of Christ and not man-made heresy.
We ought to have a living faith and no dead faith. A living faith is a faith that is all about good works. The aim of faith is the pursuit of good works unto God’s glory alone. The Gospel of faith alone in Reformed Orthodoxy is not about lawlessness, but it is about having a faith of lawful obedience unto all good deeds. We ought to love good works; we ought to delight in good works; we ought to extend ourselves to others by good works.
Are you all about good works in light of the life of Christ?
CHAPTER 9:
Essential Dogma Connected to the Gospel of Faith Alone
There may be people who believe in the Reformed doctrine of faith alone, but they believe wrong things on doctrine that are essential to the Gospel. Hersey is a cosmic sin against the Holy God of Israel.
What is the essential dogma connected to the Gospel of faith alone?
We must believe in God the Holy Trinity. If the Trinitarian God is rejected, there is no spiritual salvation. God is one in essence, and three in distinct persons. We cannot have the Father devoid of the Son, nor the Son devoid of the Father, nor the Father and the Son devoid of the Spirit. Are there not Three in One?
We must believe in the humanity and deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Great I AM. He was, and is, and forever shall be. There was never a time when God the Son did not exist. God the Son became man as Jesus Christ, and accomplished His overall redemptive work.
We believe in the doctrines of grace and the solas. Faith is only by the Almighty hand of grace, because we are totally unable to believe due to our fallen natures. God freely elects His people based on nothing they have done: the only reason He chose to save is because it seemed good in His sight. The intention of Christ in His Cross-work is for His chosen few: His work was meant for those for whom were chosen. Those who have the possession of true faith will continue until the very end because Christ keeps those that are His unto His glory alone.
CHAPTER 10:
Sin, the Choice of Damnation, and Holiness
We live in a world of sin, darkness and evil. I think we are living in the greatest time of evil since the Cross. I believe the Reformed church will see the Roman Antichrist arise from the pit of hell.
The choice of God against those who He damns is a life of condemnation. God is never wrong to send anyone who is unjust to hell. The justice of God will be applied to the malice reprobates, because the greatest Christian dogma that they fear is the Reformed doctrine of justification by faith alone. If it is what Luther said about how the church stands or falls: it is the greatest threat to the Roman Antichrist, the hosts of Antichrist, and to Satan himself.
As Christians we must remember that we are elected unto holiness. We must live by faith in the divine Son of God, and we must always have a grateful heart because of His Word and Spirit. Never use the grace that has been given to you for malice sin: live in light of God’s presence in all holy ways.
If you claim to be a Christian, do you have a radical change in your thought life, and behavior in light of what is right in the sight of God? If you claim to be a Christian, do you speak with wholesome words or curses? If you claim to be a Christian, do you posses a fear of God that produces contrite repentance? If you claim to be a Christian, do you have a daily broken and contrite heart before God?
I ask for those concerned about their spiritual state: are you right with God? Do you have a consistent repentance? Is Christ alone your Ark that avails over the dark waters of defilement, or do you trust in something else?
May Christ the King grant to His people the alien (or foreign) righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ this day by faith alone! Surely the peace of the imputed righteousness of Christ is the peace that no devil can undo. Amen.
Men’s religions exalt its own
But heavenly merit is born of Christ alone
Where no impurity, stain or sin is,
Only the divine righteousness of Christ alone
Reckoned as righteous because of Him
Who lived perfectly and died perfectly
For His sheep; His chosen ones
An imputed righteousness by faith alone;
The grace of divine merit, given to the believing-ones
Grace from shore to shore,
Heavenly garments, shining as the sun
A declaration made by God alone through His Son
From that Spirit who applies His work
True; abiding; and genuine peace
Entrance into the heavenly city
Where the glowing garments of righteousness avail
Stand, clothed in His complete merit
Before the Father but through the Son;
Yea, this day for His glory.
Amen.
