mgpcpastor's blog

Ray Ortlund’s blog provides a quote or two a day.
Short, pithy and helpful.
He must read a lot and/or have a wonderful referencing system.
I thought these two recent quotes were appropriate to my post yesterday.

The primary goal of every Christian for 2010
“Since we are justified by faith alone, it is clear that the inner person cannot be justified, freed or saved by any external work or act, and such works, whatever they may be, have nothing to do with the inner person. Therefore, only ungodliness and unbelief of the heart make a person a condemned servant of sin — this cannot be caused by any external work or act of sin. It follows that it ought to be the primary goal of every Christian to put aside confidence in works and grow stronger in the belief that we are saved by faith alone. Through this faith the Christian should increase in knowledge not of works but of Christ Jesus and the benefits of his death and resurrection.”
Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian (Minneapolis, 2008), page 55, italics added.

“In order for a pure and lasting work of spiritual renewal to take place within the church . . .”
“Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. . . . In their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification. . . . Few know enough to start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.
In order for a pure and lasting work of spiritual renewal to take place within the church, multitudes within it must be led to build their lives on this foundation. This means that they must be conducted into the light of a full conscious awareness of God’s holiness, the depth of their sin and the sufficiency of the atoning work of Christ for their acceptance with God, not just at the outset of their Christian lives but in every succeeding day.”
Richard F. Lovelace, Dynamics of Spiritual Life (Downers Grove, 1979), pages 101-102, italics his.

Rejecting legalism and antinomianism, biblical Christianity affirms that our salvation and ongoing acceptance by God is because of Christ’s work alone and that the Christian’s response is a life that seeks after holiness.