Thursday, October 23, 2008

Gospel Pipeline--Stage Three (cont'd)

My favorite catechism question is from the Heidelberg. Question #60--"How are you right with God? Answer: Only by true faith in Jesus Christ. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against ALL God's commandments and of NEVER having kept ANY of them; and even though I am STILL inclined toward evil, nevertheless, without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, AS IF I had NEVER sinned, nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient FOR me. All I need to do is accept this gift of God with a believing heart." The Christian must preach this gospel to himself/herself every day! It is through believing this truth that the Spirit of God changes us (2 Cor 3:18, Gal 3:5)! Our Titus verses that highlight all this are as follows: Justification--Titus 3:7a; Adoption--Titus 3:7b (also Jn 17:23, Zeph 3:17); and the hope of both initial and continual transformation is found in Titus 3:5--the renewal of the Holy Spirit. What we're emphasizing, of course, is that the Christian life is supernatural! And again, I've promised to use Num 21 as an illustration of this...and I'll get to it soon!

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