[BBC List] $3 please

[Mike Abendroth]

"I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too
much

 

-just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don't
want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. 

 

I certainly don't want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish
self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. 

 

I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I
would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but
I myself don't want to love those from different races-especially if they
smell. 

 

I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well
behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving
too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of gospel
please." 

 

(D.A. Carson, Basics for Believers, an exposition of Philippians), pp.12-13.

 

HT:  Erik Raymond

 

Thanks.

 

For the King's honor,

 

Charis,

 

Mike Abendroth

 

 <http://www.bbcchurch.org> www.bbcchurch.org

 

Ephesians 3:21 auvtw/| h` do,xa evn th/| evkklhsi,a| 

 

2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

 

"Faith is not our physician; it only brings us to the Physician ... Faith is
not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on
Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us;
that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for
our sins.  It is a sin-bearer that we need, and our faith cannot be a
sin-bearer. Faith can expiate no guilt; can accomplish no propitiation; can
pay no penalty; can wash away no stain; can provide no righteousness. It
brings us to the cross, . but in itself it has no merit and no virtue.
Faith is not Christ, nor the cross of Christ. Faith is not the blood, nor
the sacrifice; . Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between
itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgment that the cross alone saves,
and that it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross, nor to its healing
virtue. It owns the fulness, and sufficiency, and suitableness of the work
done there, and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter
into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see
the glorious spectacle of all things done, and to accept this completion
without a misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the "It is finished!"
of the Sin-bearer, and says, "Amen."   

NOT FAITH, BUT CHRIST 

by Horatius Bonar 
(1808-1889) 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bbcchurch.org/pipermail/bbc_list/attachments/20070628/5551a76f/attachment.htm