ROMANS 3:9-18 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” (vv. 10-12).

Try as we might, it is very difficult for human beings to come to grips with the fact that we do not deserve heaven. The average person, perhaps even the average professing Christian, is likely to say God should let him into heaven because he tries his best to be good and do the right thing. We have an innate tendency to believe we will get into heaven as long as our good works outweigh our bad deeds.

Of course, in comparison to someone like Adolf Hitler, most of us could be described as “good,” relatively speaking. However, God does not measure our good­ness or righteousness by a relative standard but by the absolute standard of His own character and law. As we have seen, this standard is perfection, which is why Paul can look at the world and say that no person is righteous even if we see unbe­lievers do noble and honorable things from time to time (Rom. 3:9-12). Moreover, Jesus tells us quite explicitly that we “must be perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). God will not grade on a curve — we can pass His test and enter heaven by our works only if we never disobey Him (Gal. 5:3). If we commit only one “minor” transgression while we walk the earth, we have fallen short of infinite perfection and deserve an infinite judgment. This is the state in which all natural-born descendants of Adam find themselves (Gen. 8:21; Isa. 64:6-7; Matt. 13:40-42; Rom. 3:23).

Christ alone has met God’s standard of perfection (1 Peter 2:22), and that is why we can be considered the righteousness of God only if we are in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus shows us in the Sermon on the Mount that righteousness means conforming to God’s law both in its letter and in its spirit (Matt. 5:21-26), and we have failed in this task miserably. If we think that we have kept the Lord’s commandments, let us read Christ’s call never to put anyone or anything before Him (Matt. 10:37). To consider this command honestly is to realize that none but Christ have followed God so perfectly.

Born in sin, we cannot keep the law of God with our heart, soul, mind, or strength. The fallen nature we inherit from Adam (Rom. 3:9-18; 5:12-21) keeps us from want­ing to serve Him of our own accord. Only Jesus, by His Spirit, can change this.

God does not grade on a curve. Two good deeds do not make up for one bad one. Any way we slice it, there is nothing we can do to make up for not meeting God’s standard of perfection. Let us remind ourselves of that fact daily, that we might continually believe in the gospel. Only the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us by faith alone, fulfills the Lord’s standard and guarantees us eternal life.

• From Ligonier’s January 2012 Tabletalk Magazine

Thou blessed Spirit, Author of all grace, and comfort,
Come, work repentance in my soul;
Represent sin to me in its odious colors that I may hate it; Melt my heart by the majesty and mercy of God; Show me my ruined self and the help there is in him; Teach me to behold my creator,

his ability to save,
his arms outstretched,
his heart big for me.

May I confide in his power and love,
commit my soul to him without reserve,
bear his linage, observe his laws, pursue his service, and be through time and eternitv,
a monument to the efficacy of his grace, a trophy of his victory.

Make me willing to be saved in his way,
perceiving nothing in myself, but all in Jesus:

Help me not only to receive him but
to walk in him,
depend upon him,
commune with him,
be conformed to him,
follow him,
imperfect, but still pressing forward,
not complaining of labor, but valuing rest,
not murmuring under trials, but thankful, for my state.

Give me that faith which is the means of salvation,
and the principle and medium of all godliness;

May I be saved by grace through faith,
live by faith,
feel the joy of faith,
do the work of faith.

Perceiving nothing in myself, may I find in Christ wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption.

• From “The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions”

The Christian life begins with learning – learning the gospel.  No one is made right with a God about whom he knows nothing.  No one is made right with God unless he learns about Him and His message to the world, a message of good news called the gospel.  To know God, people must learn that there is a God (Heb. 11:6), that they have broken His law, and that they need to be reconciled to Him. They must learn that God’s Son, Jesus, came to accomplish that reconciliation and that He did so by means of His sinless life and His death on the cross as a substitute for sinners. They must learn of His bodily resurrection and their need to repent of their sins and to believe in Jesus and what He has done.   Apart from people learning these things, “How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?” (Rom.10:14).

Intentional learning is implied in Jesus’ offer in Luke 9:23: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” So from the very start of discipleship, to follow Jesus implied learning from Him, for as did Peter, John, and the others, anyone would certainly learn from Jesus if they would follow Him. But Jesus is even more specific about learning from Him in Matthew 11:29: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  To accept the yoke of a disciple of Jesus means to commit to a lifetime of learning about Jesus and from Jesus.

To emphasize learning as essential to following Jesus is not advocacy for egghead Christianity. Like Jesus, we want both a heart for God and a head for God. Remember that the Great Commandment emphasizes loving God both with all the heart and with all the mind, as well as with all one’s soul and strength (Mark 12:29-30).  As R.C. Sproul once wrote, “Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads.” God’s truth — which must be learned — is the fuel for the spiritual fire that flames in the Christian heart.

LIFELONG LEARNING
The Christian life not only begins with learning, it proceeds through a process of lifelong learning. This includes deeper discoveries of intimacy with God, an ever-growing grasp of the Bible and its doctrines, a greater awareness of our sin, an increased knowledge of the person and work of Christ, further implications of what it means to follow Him, and more. A mature understanding of these things does not come quickly or without effort. Simply put, it is impossible to grow into a Christlikeness one knows nothing about.  By the Spirit’s power, we must learn what Christlikeness means and how Jesus wants us to follow Him. We learn this through the Bible, of course, but it involves learning nonetheless.

Those whom the Bible considers wise and intelligent understand this. According to Scripture, “The wise lay up knowledge” and “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge” (Prov. 10:14; 18:15). So the primary measurement of wisdom and intelligence is not your IQ or GPA but whether you pursue knowledge, that is, whether you discipline yourself to continue learning the things of God throughout your life.

INTENTIONAL LEARNING
A hunger to learn the Word of God, the ways of God, and the will of God expresses a hunger for God Himself. Those who love God long to be taught about Him and from Him. That doesn’t mean all Christians are to manifest an affinity for learning exactly the same things and in identical ways. But it is true that apathy toward learning the things of God is a mark of those who do not know God.
We are blessed to live in a time when the means of and opportunities for expressing a love for God through learning greatly exceed our ability to take advantage of them. But all these profit little if a person doesn’t pursue them. This is why learning must always be a discipline, for a person can be surrounded by wisdom and knowledge yet live without their riches if he or she does not possess the discipline to learn them.

Thus, learning is indeed a gospel-driven spiritual discipline; those who are not exerting themselves to learn the things of God will gain spiritual and biblical knowledge only by accident or mere convenience. By contrast, intentional learners will seek to learn the things of God and will do so individually as well as with the church, disciplining themselves to learn from those who are gifted by God and recognized by the church as teachers.

• Article is from November 2011  Tabletalk Magazine
• Dr. Donald S. Whitney is senior associate dean of the school of theology and professor of biblical spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• He is also founder and president of the Center for Biblical Spirituality

On Friday we saw that the connection of the mercy we receive with the mercy we show to others can be a scary prospect indeed apart from the mediation of Christ. If we were to consider the potential of Scripture to strike us with fear more fully, however, we would doubtless include the sixth beatitude as a frightening passage as well. Jesus promises that the “pure in heart” will “see God,” but who among us is pure in heart?

Again, our only confidence is in Christ, who has sanctified His people by His blood (1 Cor. 6:11). He has set us apart definitively as holy and pure, and we prove this status by striving after personal holiness until in glory we are perfected and freed from all sin. This purity is guaranteed by the effectual work of our Savior, and so we who are in Christ Jesus know that we will one day experience the Beatific Vision — we know that we will one day see God as He is.

In Exodus 33:20, the Lord tells us that no man can see His face and live, but this is not due to God making His image-bearers inherently unable to bear His presence. Before the fall, humanity experienced intimate, face-to-face communion with the Creator when He walked with us in the cool of the day (Gen. 3:8). But this fellowship was lost when we fell into sin. The barrier that keeps us from seeing the Lord now is our fallen character. Once this fallenness is removed, there is no reason why we would not be able to gaze on God’s incomparable beauty.

This, indeed, is the Lord’s greatest promise to us, that we will be able to gaze upon Him, the most beautiful, awe-inspiring, worthy, holy, loving being that ever was, is, and will be. We will, as 1 John 3:1–3 tells us, see Him as He is. The Apostle is making reference to Christ: not the human nature of Christ alone but also the divine nature that is perfectly united with humanity in the person of our Savior. And to see the divine nature of the Son of God also means that we will see the other persons of the Trinity as well, for the Son dwells in the Father and the Father in the Son, just as the Holy Spirit mutually indwells the Father and the Son (John 10:37–38). What seeing God face to face means precisely is not for us to know today, but we do know that seeing Him will fully satisfy our souls.

The glory of Jesus Christ shines more clearly when we see Him in His proper relation to the Old Testament. He has a magnificent relation to all that was written. It is not surprising that this is the case, because He is called the Word of God incarnate (John 1:14).  Would not the Word of God incarnate be the sum and consummation of the Word of God written? Consider these summary statements and the texts that support them.

1. ALL THE SCRIPTURES BEAR WITNESS TO CHRIST.

• Moses wrote about Christ (John 5:39, 46).

2. ALL THE SCRIPTURES ARE ABOUT JESUS CHRIST, EVEN WHERE THERE IS NO EXPLICIT PREDICTION.

• That is, there is a fullness of implication in all Scripture that points to Christ and is satisfied only when He has come and done His work. Graeme Goldsworthy explains: “The meaning of all the Scriptures is unlocked by the death and resurrection of Jesus” (see Luke 24:27).

3. JESUS CAME TO FULFILL ALL THAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS.

• All of it was pointing to Him even where it was not explicitly prophetic. He accomplished what the law required (Matt. 5:17-18).

5. THE LAW WAS KEPT PERFECTLY BY CHRIST.

• And all its penalties against God’s sinful people were poured out on Christ. Therefore, the Law is manifestly not the path to righteousness, Christ is. The ultimate goal of the Law is that we would look to Christ, not law-keeping, for our righteousness (Rom. 10:4).

1. THE BLOOD SACRIFICES CEASED BECAUSE CHRIST FULFILLED ALL THAT THEY WERE POINTING TOWARD.

• He was the final, unrepeatable sacrifice for sins. Hebrews 9:12: “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.”

Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” John 7:38

A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fulness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth. We have nothing to do with the outflow—“This is the work of God that ye believe.…” God rarely allows a soul to see how great a blessing he is.

A river is victoriously persistent, it overcomes all barriers. For a while it goes steadily on its course, then it comes to an obstacle and for a while it is baulked, but it soon makes a pathway round the obstacle. Or a river will drop out of sight for miles, and presently emerge again broader and grander than ever. You can see God using some lives, but into your life an obstacle has come and you do not seem to be of any use. Keep paying attention to the Source, and God will either take you round the obstacle or remove it. The river of the Spirit of God overcomes all obstacles. Never get your eyes on the obstacle or on the difficulty. The obstacle is a matter of indifference to the river which will flow steadily through you if you remember to keep right at the Source. Never allow anything to come between yourself and Jesus Christ, no emotion, or experience; nothing must keep you from the one great sovereign Source.

Think of the healing and far-flung rivers nursing themselves in our souls! God has been opening up marvellous truths to our minds, and every point He has opened up is an indication of the wider power of the river He will flow through us. If you believe in Jesus, you will find that God has nourished in you mighty torrents of blessing for others.

•  Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year. Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers.

You Asked: Did the Apostle Peter Have a Bad Hermeneutic?

I respect church leaders who abstain from social media. Yet I see no reason we should neglect the remarkable possibilities for teaching and leadership offered by instant, unrestricted communication to willing audiences. Still, I expect over the long term that tweets, status updates, and blog posts will pale in influence compared to our everyday, tangible pursuit of holiness and love with the support of our local church.

“The favor of the people may be won by some brilliant action,” de Tocqueville wrote, “but the love and respect of your neighbors must be gained by a long series of small services, hidden deeds of goodness, a persistent habit of kindness, and an established reputation of selflessness.”

Church leaders today find themselves caught between two equally valid but competing realities. Social media have become valuable, even necessary, tools for teaching and exercising leadership. Yet Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs cannot substitute for the local church, which is a living testimony to Jesus Christ. Striking the right balance requires wisdom and discernment to prioritize the local church while learning the strengths and weaknesses of social media.

Awkwardly co-existing, the real and virtual worlds undoubtedly shape one another. Look no further than the recent resurgence of Calvinism among younger evangelicals. Whereas Calvinists outside the confessional denominations once found fellowship by attending occasional conferences and swapping sermon cassettes, they now have unfettered access to a supportive and boisterous community online, enjoying a large virtual network of like-minded thinkers.

Yet this network has evident limitations. Prominent bloggers may wield tremendous influence online with gifts for writing and promotion. But unless they develop a robust ecclesiology and solicit help from church leadership, they may employ these gifts outside the God-given accountability structure in the body of Christ. Already isolated by virtue of spending hours each day in front of computers, bloggers lose any hedge against common web temptations. They may become incurably skeptical toward the church or incessantly critical of other writers. Influencers disconnected from the seasoned wisdom of friends and mentors risk damaging the church. Though it may seem counterintuitive, social media foster and encourage lone rangers.

If individualism runs rampant in American society, it runs roughshod over the internet. Facebook is a helpful communication tool, but it also plays into our penchant for carefully crafting profiles for public consumption. We can make of ourselves whatever we want in the virtual world. The self-made man is a staple of American culture. Writing about the middle class in antebellum America in his famous book Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville said, “They are used to considering themselves in isolation and quite willingly imagine their destiny as entirely in their own hands.” He might not have been surprised to learn about the path to influence and affluence in the internet age.

Social media are the natural spawn of democracy and meritocracy. Ancestry, tradition, and location matter little, if at all. You can accomplish whatever your work ethic and talents allow. On the one hand, this can be a real boon to the Christian cause. Christian missions can flourish in this atmosphere. The free marketplace of ideas online allows opportunities for Christians to proclaim the gospel message in innovative ways for the benefit of those who have no personal contact with believers. Campus ministers can hardly imagine a time before Facebook, when they couldn’t so easily contact new students.

Yet on the other hand, social media may detract from basic discipleship. Unfettered American freedom that shuns community and tradition eventually devolves into “self-centeredness, loneliness, superficiality, and harried consumerism,” Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon wrote in Resident Aliens even before internet access became widely available. This culture doesn’t exactly reinforce Jesus’ command to pick up our crosses, deny ourselves, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24).

We walk on a foundation of individualism and suck in the air of postmodernism, thick with the heavy dew of multiculturalism. Absent today are the ties that bind. Never before has a generation so desperately needed the local church, the communion of saints, to help them follow Jesus. God has been faithful to preserve this place of authentic community in our culture. The Word says we have a duty, responsibility, and obligation to our neighbors, especially those in the household of faith (Luke 10:29–37; 1 Tim. 5:8). We may yearn for the freedom to express ourselves with the aid of social media, but we’re not truly free unless we’re responsible to a community. That’s what the apostle Paul taught in Galatians 5:13. Freed from sin by Christ through His death and resurrection, we’re free to love one another. The church affords us the opportunity to love and serve in a way social media never will.

I respect church leaders who abstain from social media. Yet I see no reason we should neglect the remarkable possibilities for teaching and leadership offered by instant, unrestricted communication to willing audiences. Still, I expect over the long term that tweets, status updates, and blog posts will pale in influence compared to our everyday, tangible pursuit of holiness and love with the support of our local church.

“The favor of the people may be won by some brilliant action,” de Tocqueville wrote, “but the love and respect of your neighbors must be gained by a long series of small services, hidden deeds of goodness, a persistent habit of kindness, and an established reputation of selflessness.”

“Thus too, it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities.  So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods.”  - John Calvin

There is no shortage of perplexing realities in our world today, but counted among them must be the fact that many rather well informed people seem to be shocked that Christians believe the doctrines of Christianity.

Over the weekend, Rep. Anthony Weiner announced that he will request a leave of absence from the House of Representatives in order to seek professional treatment in the aftermath of his sexting scandal on Twitter. In the words of his spokeswoman, Risa Heller, the congressman left last Saturday “to seek professional treatment to focus on becoming a better husband and healthier person.”

She continued: “In light of that, he will request a short leave of absence from the House of Representatives so that he can get evaluated and map out a course of treatment to make himself well.”

That is a course now familiar to us all. As a matter of fact, it is now almost a reflex that people caught in moral trouble (especially related to sex) announce that they are seeking “treatment” for the problem.

On the one hand, this just points to the fact that the “Triumph of the Therapeutic” heralded by sociologist Philip Rieff in 1966 is now so ingrained in our culture that therapy appears to be the answer to every problem, including a moral crisis.

Sadly, many Christians have accepted this worldview as their own, believing that their own deepest problems are therapeutic rather than theological in nature. To our shame, many books written by and for evangelical Christians reflect the therapeutic impulse, rather than the appropriate biblical and spiritual concerns.

In response to Rep. Weiner’s statement, I posted the following message on Twitter:

“Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no effective ‘treatment’ for sin. Only atonement, found only in Jesus Christ.”

As far as I know, Rep. Weiner is not among my “followers” on Twitter. I did not assume that he was reading my posting. My message was mostly directed at my fellow Christians as a reminder of this very concern — that the American impulse is to seek treatment when our real need is for redemption.

This is a basic and central Christian belief. The Bible reveals that our need is not to find a way to make ourselves well — which we can never do — but to realize that we are sinners in need of a Savior. The Christian Gospel is the message of redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that is found in him and in him alone.

The very essence of biblical Christianity is the knowledge that the real human problem is sin — not sickness — and that the only rescue is that which comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

In response to my tweet, Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today posted a series of tweets of her own, including this:

“Top @Baptist voice chides @Jewish @Weiner to choose Christ. Shades of Brit Hume telling @TigerWoods to quit @Buddhism.”

Later, in response to a complaint on Twitter that she had “slammed” me by twisting my words, she responded: “It’s Mohler slamming Jews here.”

In a separate article, she wrote this:

“This reads as an evangelism tactic, riding in on the Weiner headlines but aimed at people like Jews such as Weiner, Buddhists like Woods, and many others, such as Weiner’s Muslim wife, who hold different ideas about salvation, different approaches to atonement.”

Seriously? It is rather shocking to find the religion and spirituality writer for USA Today surprised that a Christian believes what orthodox Christianity has consistently taught — that every single human being is a sinner in need of the redemption that is found only in Christ.

I never mentioned Judaism. Rep. Weiner’s problem has to do with the fact that he is a sinner, like every other human being, regardless of religious faith or affiliation. Christians — at least those who hold to biblical and orthodox Christianity — believe that salvation is found through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him alone.

Later, Cathy Lynn Grossman posted this in response to criticism:

“What @Mohler said was atonement ‘only’ through Christ. Non-Christians disagree, also have routes to restoring righteousness.”

The exchange on Twitter is another sign of how politically incorrect biblical Christianity is becoming in our times. Christians do understand that non-Christians disagree with the Gospel. We also understand that other religions claim “routes to restoring righteousness.” But biblical Christians cannot accept that these “routes” lead to redemption, and the only righteousness that saves — the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer, who is justified by faith in Christ alone.

That is the Gospel as declared in the historic Christian creeds and held, at least by historic claim, by almost all Christian churches and denominations. It is a non-negotiable of the Christian faith, deeply rooted in the teaching of Christ that he is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that no one comes to the Father, “but my Me.” [John 14:6]

Non-Christians who have an understanding of Christianity may well find this claim offensive, but they should not find it shocking — even on Twitter.