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An Utter Travesty of the Gospel

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“…To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”
(2 Peter 1:1)

“Here is something which is truly important, and something which is basic and fundamental to the whole Christian position. The order in which these things are put is absolutely vital. The Apostle does not ask us to do anything until he has first of all emphasized and repeated what God has done for us in Christ.

How often have men given the impression that to be Christian means that you display in your life a kind of general belief of faith, and then you add to it virtue and knowledge and charity! To them the Christian message is an exhortation to us to live a certain type of life, and an exhortation to put these things into practice.

But that is an utter travesty of the Gospel. The Christian Gospel in the first instance does not ask us to do anything. It first of all proclaims and announces to us what God has done for us.

The first statement of the Gospel is not an exhortation to action or to conduct and behavior. Before man is called upon to do anything, he must have received something. Before God calls upon a man to put anything into practice, He has made it possible for man to put it into practice.”

—D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (found in his Expository Sermons on 2 Peter)

Comments

    • This is absolutely the track my Father has me on. Yielding to what HE has done for me is the starting point of moving, living, abiding in Him. I came to the site today to print the In Him, Of Him, By Him, In Christ, By Christ, Of Christ scriptures.

    • I had the same thought after reading this.

      The apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians reminding them of the gospel of grace that he had received from the Lord, Gal.1:11, Gal.1:12
      1st Cor. 15:1-4
      Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which you have received, and WHEREIN YOU STAND, unless ye have believed in vain. 2. BY WHICH ALSO YOU ARE SAVED, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the scriptures: 4. And that HE WAS BURIED, and that HE ROSE AGAIN the third day according to the scriptures:
      And Eph.3:3 Eph.3:4 Eph.3:5 Eph.3:6 Eph.3:7

      • I mean’t to type Eph.1:3 Eph.1:4 Eph.1:5 Eph.1:6 and Eph.1:7
        Our God and Father has made the gospel of grace simple to understand and easy for us to attain. When i stand before the pearly gates, i am going to look toward Jesus and tell them i belong to him.

  2. I think most accurate is to say that if you have received the Gospel then you WILL do the gospel. It’s not a commandment it’s a promise. God has said, “It’s finished” and “it is for freedom that you have been set free.”

    If you are not doing the gospel you are not understanding it.

    col 1:6 – All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.

    Good works come from hearing and understanding not from buckling down and doing. Fill yourself with the knowledge and the grace of God and then just live your life. The results just show up automatically.

    You can’t stand next to holiness and come out stinking like the world. It’s just not possible. And his work has ushered us into the Holy of Holies. How awesome is that!!!! 🙂

    • “The Christian Gospel in the first instance does not ask us to do anything. It first of all proclaims and announces to us….”

      That ALL mankind are under the wrath of God for their disobedience (sins). We all enter this world dead in trespass and sin (Ps 51:5, 58:3-4; etc). NONE seeketh after God (Romans 3:10-12; etc). Man’s heart is DESPERATELY WICKED (Jere 17:9, Mat 15:18-19; etc), and wants to go his own way. Man’s nature is to FLEE for God!!

      What is man’s remedy? Can man turn himself? Can man give himlself a new heart? Does ‘good behavior’ AFTER we have sinned, remove sin? NO!! We NEED God to make the FIRST MOVE in our lives. We are as Lazarus, a stinking corpse of John 11. Could Lazarus do anything OF HIMSELF to get out of the tomb? No!! God had to come FIRST, and GIVE Lazarus ears to hear the command to “Come forth’. Then a will ot obey God’s command.

      Meaning, Salvation is 100% the work of God, 0% the work of man. Good works are EVIDENCE God is working in us, but never the cause of Salvation! Salvation is Christ centered. Christ is to be GLORIFIED, NOT man!! Notice WHO does the WORK of Regeneration:

      Jer 24:7 “And I will GIVE them an heart to know Me, that I [am] the LORD: And they shall be My People, and I will be their God: For they shall **return unto Me with their WHOLE heart.**

      Eze 36:24 “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land (Kingdom of God).

      Eze 36:25 “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: From all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”

      Eze 36:26 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

      Eze 36:27 “And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My Statutes, and ye shall keep My Judgments, and do [them].”

      Deu 30:6 “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with **ALL** thine heart, and with **ALL** thy soul, that thou mayest Live.”

      • Witness,

        What do you think you witnessed here? None of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones summary above disagree with what you said, except you paint a picture of you are never to work at all in the relationship with God. That is so wrong I’m not going to bother to get vss, but off the top of my head:
        Gal 5:6 theology isn’t important but faith working through love.
        Matthew 25, every parable
        The very word AGAPAO requiers the demonstration. Without the demonstration it’s Phileo. Demonstration means, expressed physically not just a warm fuzzy inside.

        Matt 5:48 is talking about love, see context above it, 44-48. Christ commanded you to Agapao like God does, even to your/his enemies. You can’t fulfill that commandment if you do no works. It’s inherently impossible.

        Works should be a result of salvation. They don’t save you. But, consider this, if you don’t have works, according to James your faith is missing. Without faith, you don’t get grace.
        Do you propose you have grace with no faith? ROFL. This paragraph is brought to you by James, in chapter 2.

        Let me make it more simple. We went camping. I gave you a gun to go get us some food. You sit next to the fire and never go get food. Eventually I take the gun from you and give it to John to go get food. He does, because I helped him and told him where it was at. I.E. parable of the Talents.

        These comments you have parroted are a knee jerk reaction pile of cliches people throw at the RCC. I am not RCC. These comments are hollow and deny scripture.

        You were saved to do the works. Don’t get your gun jerked away.

        The comments from the man above say no different. It doesn’t address working to be saved.

        I’m embarassed for you.

      • Your comment both blessed me and humbled me. We can’t do the eternal work of God until we have His heart.

      • AMEN!! Well said! It is Jesus who saved us, past tense, He will not go to the cross again to die just because I sinned today, He died once and for ALL! It is ALL about Him, not us! I praise His Name that His truth is going forth into this world to bring us everyday closer to His return!

  4. It’s ALL ABOUT HIM – His holiness ! not me trying to be ‘like’ Him …. but me surrendering ‘me’ so that He is ALL He is through me (a vessel – a container made of see-through clay so that the ‘contents’ show clearly). HE is the Light of the World !

    • Eph 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the [fn4] saints for the *work of service,* to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 *until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the [fn5] knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man*, to the measure of the stature [fn6] which belongs to the *fullness of Christ*. 14

      If Christ’s maturity/perfection (same greek word) were metaphorically a glass. It says we would have a glass to. Our glass would be the same size, the same width, and with fullness the same amount in the glass as Christ had.

      I’d have to laugh at the thought it’s not about you trying to be ‘like’ Him. UNLESS you mean to take the vss above as written, and admit it’s not like Him but just as He was. There is no LIKE to the verse. There is no strive either.

      Do you realize there is a MATURITY for a saved person to attain? Do you realize it’s expected? Do you realize that you get there by HIS training/discipline not your efforts. Do you realize that it is done through your works. You can’t aim a bird to death, you have to pull the trigger. (through your works, see vss above.)

      TY for listening.

  5. All of the above is true but there is more truth that we are to be aware of, as James writes;

    James 1: 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
    22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

    When as born again believers with Jesus indwelling us, and us submitted to Him, He will ‘call’ us to serve the kingdom to do the will of the Father just as He did on earth. James was talking to the ‘beloved brethren’, who Jesus said would do ‘greater works’.

  6. This doctrine of salvation by grace is nothing new. However, it has become lost in a world that just cannot be satisfied with the work of God. The sinfulness of man has distorted the Gospel of Jesus Christ and created a version that says “you must ask Jesus to save you”. I say to you, how can a dead man ask for life if he cannot speak? Since we are dead (Eph. 2:1 and Col. 2:13) we must have a savior to give us life. Then after we have been given life, we can live.

    All of God’s people will come to know him, “for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” (Heb. 8:11). God’s hand is not limited. It doesn’t even depend on the preached word! God is sovereign (works alone) and His will for His children to live eternally with Him will be performed only by Him! What great news to know that God has taken care of us!

    There is still a church preaching the sovereign grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who do not hold to man-made ideologies but worship strictly by the Bible (God’s only inspired word for worship and practice in life). That group of people is the Primitive Baptist Church. If you desire to worship the Lord in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24)then seek out these loving and precious people near you.

    God’s truth is ALWAYS worth fighting for!

    May God Bless You!

  7. Ummm, you aren’t required to do anything. Not to start the race, but to finish it you are required to do much.

    You are saved by grace, through faith, not works so no man can boast.
    If you have faith, you will have works.
    If you have no works, your faith is absent, or highly questionable.
    If you have no faith, You can’t get to grace.
    With no grace how are you going to remain saved?

    If I give you my gun on a hunting trip to get food for us, and you sit around the campfire and never use the gun, eventually I’m going to take it away from you and get a user that will use it. Reference the men with the talents, the wheat and tares, etc.. Oh pruning the vine…

    You were saved to do good works. Eph 2:10.

    They are not all works you are a puppet to unknowingly do for God. Ephesians 4:11-13, the Church is to prepare you for works of faith, (not yourself.. interesting…)Through which you are in unity, and KNOWLEDGE (thru works)of Christ. UNTIL you are as perfect/mature/quickened/finished/telios as Jesus Christ Himself was. Don’t argue with me, I’m just repeating the verse.

    The very term, AGAPAO requires work/demonstration.
    Gal 5:6 theology isn’t important but faith expressing / working, itself through love.

    Paul suggested in several of his epistles to continue to do the works, and gave examples of physical things.

    Matthew 25 every parable deals with doing works.

    You are saved by Grace. If you don’t perform with that Grace you can be cut. Or you never had it in the first place? I would accept that as well. Like it matters what I would accept.

    This is off the fly, I can get more if you require.

  8. PB
    September 6, 2011 at 9:45 am #
    This doctrine of salvation by grace is nothing new.

    (me: In the capacity it’s taught today, pretty much that emphasis exists since Luter. AND his teaching got hyperbolically transformed into something that people remove eph 2:10 from the conversation.)

    However, it has become lost in a world that just cannot be satisfied with the work of God. The sinfulness of man has distorted the Gospel of Jesus Christ and created a version that says “you must ask Jesus to save you”.

    (there was no quick conversion in the early church except as the exception. They spent time learning to live the life before they were considered in the Church. They were in the CHURCH because of how they lived, not what they believed or professed. And the early church worked like crazy, for no other reason that Jesus expected them to be instruments of His righteousness, or tools of… here on Earth.)

    I say to you, how can a dead man ask for life if he cannot speak? Since we are dead (Eph. 2:1 and Col. 2:13) we must have a savior to give us life. Then after we have been given life, we can live.

    (What dies… col 2:11.
    What lives… Romans 8:9
    What is the result, Gal 5:16, 1 john 4:16.

    All of God’s people will come to know him,

    (1 john 3:6. In todays Church, as a unit it claims to know Him, as a rule the Bible says… [insert game show buzzer here.]

    “for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” (Heb. 8:11). God’s hand is not limited.

    (God’s hand isn’t limited, but it has put some restrictions on who is accepted. And, all shall know me….. they will either KNOW HIM, or face Him at judgement. THus all will know Him. OH and if the falling from the sky with a host doesn’t get their attention first.)

    It doesn’t even depend on the preached word! God is sovereign (works alone)

    (Who parted the red sea, GOD or MOSES?)

    and His will for His children

    (1 john 3:9/5:18 Not sure this phrase is understood)

    to live eternally with Him will be performed only by Him! What great news to know that God has taken care of us!

    (If he offered to bring you into the family business, loving neighbor as God does, matt 5:44-48, do you think if we refuse to help with the work, to be his tools, that we ever had a ticket in the first place?)

    There is still a church preaching the sovereign grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who do not hold to man-made ideologies but worship strictly by the Bible

    (No church today worships strictly by the Bible. period. Especially among protestants; I am one. Your addition of that preprositional phrase, by the Bible violates the intent of said Bible. If you worship as the Bible says, you will be His child, you will help in the family business; fishing, and stop saying there is no works to be done for a member of that family.)

    (God’s only inspired word for worship and practice in life). That group of people is the Primitive Baptist Church. If you desire to worship the Lord in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24)then seek out these loving and precious people near you.

    (Well, it’s not as Primitive as the Way was in ACTS. They did works, and loved doing them, and in fact died doing them sometimes.)

    God’s truth is ALWAYS worth fighting for!

    (start that fight then and get it right.

    May God Bless You!

    • If you were really paying attention to the article above, the message was talking about works in relation to eternal salvation. I believe good works were ordained by Christ that we should walk in them (I agree fully with Eph. 2:10). But are my good works a cause or an effect? If they caused me to get to gain eternal life then that would make void what Paul tells us leading up to Eph. 2:10 void (see Eph. 2:4-9).

      It’s as simple as that. Christ didn’t come to confuse us. He tells us plainly and we think it isn’t enough.

      By the way, the Primitive Baptists aren’t Protestant. Our church lineage is traced to the John the Baptist. We have been known by many names but our doctrine has always remained the same. We were never a part of the Roman church nor did we have to protest against it. Christ told Peter that He would build His church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18). Sounds to me like the church Christ has built is still around.

      Please show me where the Lord made/makes an offering to us for our eternal salvation. Christ, the Great High Priest, like all other high priests, made His offering to God (Heb. 9:12). The minute a person says that you must accept the free gift of salvation, the gift no longer is a gift, it is an offering to be accepted or refused.

      My position is that Christ came to save those which the Father had given Him (John 6:37). Those that the Father has given to Christ WILL come unto Him through His effectual call (John 10:3&27). Once they are made spiritually alive (born again) in Christ through His effectual call and the work of the Holy Ghost (John 3:8). Then a man has the ability to do the good works which Christ has ordained for us to walk in (Rom. 8:5-10).

      Still wearing this flesh, I don’t always do those things that I should and I still do things that I shouldn’t, much like Paul said (Rom 7:15). In this life, as a born again child of God, I have a choice to either follow God in obedience and please Him (Rom. 12:2) or to disobey Him and suffer chastisement (Heb. 12:6-8).

      It’s simple, life PRECEEDS good works. And that life is something that must be given and cannot be taken away.

      God Bless!

  9. Let Scripture define Scripture.

    Lloyd-Jones was physician. If he never “did” something in his obligation to help a patient, each one would all have become more ill than when he first saw them. So we must ask, does the “Travesty” headline fit what we are to do? Peter tells us:

    1Peter 2:12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by [your] good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

    John tells us:

    And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 1John 2:3-7

    Our Messiah, God and Saviour tells us:

    “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” Revelation 2:5

    “And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.” Revelation 2:23

    “And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations” Revelation 2:26

    After these words from God were given to him, John saw this:

    “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.” Revelation 20:12

    • Dennis,

      Thank you for sharing. The point is not that we don’t “do things” but rather it begs the question of why we do things. We do good works pleasing to God when we abide in Christ and it is the Lord who works through us. Apart from this grace, our righteousness is as filthy garments.

  10. 9-6-11

    Be, not do

    I don’t have to try to produce apples if I am an apple tree. Because I am an apple tree, I will bear apples.

    Because of what Jesus has done for me and in me, His life will flow out of me. I ‘do’ because I of whose I am. Doing comes out of my ‘being’.

    • “be doers of the word…”

      Even the Lord marveled that when He planted a good vine it turned into a degenerate vine… perhaps that’s where the ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’ come into play…

      Doing comes out of abiding (if you keep My commandments you will abide in My love; and, John 3:21)