$0.99 Theology Books for Kindle E-Reader - The Andrew Murray Collection

Andrew Murray

   The Deeper Christian Life
   Waiting On God
   The Secret of the Cross
   The Inner Chamber Life
   The Spirit of Christ
   The Power of the Blood of Jesus
   The Holiest of All
   Daily Fellowship With God
   The School of Obedience
   Divine Healing
   Abide In Christ
   With Christ in the School of Prayer
   Humility
   The True Vine
   The Blood of The Cross
   The Two Covenants
   The Prayer Life
   The Full Blessing Of Pentecost
   Money
   The Kingdom of God in You
   Be Perfect
   Love Made Perfect
   Working for God
   Why Do You Not Believe
   Thy Will Be Done
   Like Christ
   Have Mercy Upon Me
   The Collected Works of Andrew Murray
   
   

Free Theological Ebooks for Kindle

A.W. Tozer

   The Pursuit of God


Andrew Murray

   Lord, Teach Us to Pray
   Jesus, Himself
   The Master's Indwelling
   Holy in Christ
   The Ministry of Intercession 


D.L. Moody

   Men of the Bible
   Secret Power or the Secret of Success in Christian Life and Work

John Bunyan

   The Works of John Bunyan (Vol.1)
   The Works of John Bunyan (Vol.2)
   The Works of John Bunyan (Vol.3)
   The Complete Works of John Bunyan
   The Pilgrim's Progress
   Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
   The Heavenly Footman

Jonathan Edwards

   Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards

Martin Luther 

   The Works of Martin Luther with Introductions and Notes (Vol 1)
  The Works of Martin Luther with Introductions and Notes (Vol 2)
   Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians 
  Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 2 Luther on Son and the Flood 
  A Treatise on Good Works
   The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and Explained

R.A. Torrey

   The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

Never Lose the Wonder

Well, Palm Sunday is over. Good Friday and Easter Morning have passed us by once again. 

While these days have come and gone, the truths that we celebrate on these days ought never to leave our hearts and our minds. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have implications that affect not just one or two days a year, but rather every single day of our lives. Jesus is just as much alive today as he was on the first Easter. He is just as much alive today as he was on April 8th, and every Easter Sunday before that. 

Through the resurrection, Christ demonstrated his ultimate power over sin, death, and hell. That power isn't limited to one day a year. He had that power in eternity past, he has it now, and he will have it forever. 

As we exit this time of year when we specifically celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ, may we never lose the wonder of what this work of Christ accomplished for us. It bought our salvation. It gave us victory over sin and death. Because we who have once died with Christ in his crucifixion, we will be raised with him on the last day (Galatians 2:20, John 6:39-40). May we never lose the wonder of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).

The Power of the Resurrection

This past week I have been immersing myself in texts that have to do with the death and resurrection of Christ. As I have done so I have been struck again and again by the beauty of the gospel that Paul proclaimed as of "first importance (1 Cor. 15:3)."

Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, left his heavenly dwelling place and "made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:7-8)."

Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, the holy Son of God (who was God himself), died for the sins of man.

Don't just pass over that statement. Read it again!

Jesus DIED for the sins of man.

It's not some token example or illustration that the scripture uses. This death was a real event. Jesus died. The prophet Isaiah foretells this event with these words. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed (Is. 53:4-5)." Jesus died for the sins of the human race. It was not because of any wrong doing that he (Jesus) had done, but for the wrongdoing of sinful men. To personalize the words of Isaiah, "Surely he has borne (my) griefs and carried (my) sorrows." It was my sin that put him on the cross. It was the punishment for my sin that he endured.

 When considering the cross, there does not appear to be much power there. The death of Jesus on the cross is simply an innocent one dying for the guilty. If the story ends at the cross, then death has won. But, the cross is not where the story ends.

In Philippians 3:10, Paul expresses a desire to "...know him (Christ) and the power of his resurrection." Three days after Christ had surrendered his life on the cross, he rose from the grave. He became alive again! This he could do because he was God in human form, and by rising again he displayed his ultimate power over death so that Paul could say in 1 Cor. 15:55, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting." And then in vs. 56 and 57 he says, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ." Through the death and resurrection of Christ we have gained victory over death. For those of us who have trusted in the work of Christ, Romans 6:5 stands true. "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." For even though we die in Christ we live! As Galatians 2:20 puts is, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

There is power in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. A power that brings victory over death to the believer and a power that is secure because it is found in Christ and not in our own good works or our own will.

Like Paul, I desire to know the power of the resurrection. Not to know it in a simply academic or intellectual capacity, but to know it in an experiential way. I want to know that power in a way that influences and changes my life!

This week as we remember the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ may we seek to know by experience that power that the resurrection contains. God has offered freely his grace to those who simply trust and place their faith in the gospel (gospel = good news) of Jesus Christ, not only crushed for our sins, but risen again to give us life!

Soli Deo Gloria! Glory to God Alone!

Sin: a definition from the parable of the lost (prodigal) son

"Here, then, is Jesus' radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated virtually nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors can be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord, and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life."

Tim Keller - The Prodigal God

3 simple truths from 1 simple phrase

Matthew 16:18, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock (the rock being the confession of Peter that Jesus is 'the Christ, the Son of the living God.' 16:16) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (ESV)


1 - The church is God's possession. ('...I will build my church...')

God's possession of the church gives the church infinite value. The church is a special, called out assembly of people chosen by God, for God.

2 - The success of the church is guaranteed. ('...I will build my church...')

God's plan for building, sustaining, and glorifying Himself through the church cannot be frustrated.

3 - God, not man, is the builder of the church. ('...I will build my church...')

Since God is the builder man can in no way take credit for building it. He chooses to use men, but God is the catalyst behind the construction of the church.

Forgive and Forget: is it really that simple?

A friend recently made this comment.  “I think that the level at which we understand forgiveness shows the level at which we understand the gospel.” Personally, I believe this to be a very accurate statement because the gospel of Jesus Christ is essentially a gospel of forgiveness. Brian Zahnd, in his book Unconditional? said that “if Christianity isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about nothing at all.” (Zahnd, p. 2) Christ came to earth as a man and died so that his church might be forgiven of their sins. Jesus lived a life of forgiveness. Even as he was being killed Jesus cried out, “forgive them (his murderers) for they do not know what they are doing.” The gospel is a gospel of forgiveness and the extent to which we understand forgiveness reflects the extent to which we understand the gospel.

There is a cliché about forgiveness that has been making the rounds for years now. This cliché is one that is harmful to our understanding of true forgiveness. It misrepresents the very character of God and the gospel which he brings to us in Jesus Christ.

The cliché is “forgive and forget.” The logic is that if God forgives and forgets (by the way  – the word “forget” is used to refer to an “inability to remember”) our sins, then we must do the same. Jeremiah 31:34 is the verse most often cited for this opinion. The second half of the verse reads as follows: “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” A strictly literal interpretation demands the interpretation of forgive and forget. But is that what is really being said here?

When one asserts that God forgives and forgets and that we must also forgive and forget there are two issues that must be dealt with. Two issues that would seem to be very serious. One issue is on a practical level and the other is on a theological level.

The Theological Issue

The first issue I want to address is the theological issue. How does the idea that God actually forgets match up with the doctrine of God’s omniscience? Can an all-knowing God really forget something? Can an all-knowing God really cease to know something? The obvious answer is “no” because the moment that God ceases to know something (anything) he ceases to be omniscient. In the Gospel of John 16:30 the disciples said to Jesus (who was also God), “we know that you know all things.” He knows all things.

So then, what about Jeremiah 31:34? Is this verse in error? Not at all! When God says that he will “remember no more” he is referring to a covenant with the sinners. He does not cease to remember the sin, but chooses, at the moment of forgiveness, to treat the repentant sinner as if the sin had never occurred.

If we were to look in depth at the doctrine of justification we would discover that it is very similar to forgiveness. The essence of justification is that God no longer treats the believer as if he is sinner, but the sinner is given the righteousness of Christ and is therefore treated as being sinless. The fact of the sin remains, but God chose to treat Christ (by killing him on the cross) as if he had been the sinner, and treat the believer (now being justified) as the sinless one. Think about it. If God had chosen to forget or ignore the problem of our sin and had not provided a payment for it, he would have violated his own justice. Since God cannot violate his own justice he could not ignore the payment of sin. But instead of holding the believing sinner accountable he forgave the believer and transferred the penalty to Christ.

It comes down to this. God cannot forget because it is the very nature of God not to forget. If he were to forget anything he would cease to be God. God cannot forget because to forget or ignore the sin and it’s penalty would mean that all men would still be damned to hell as the necessary consequence for our sin.

The Practical Issue

Time and time again in the New Testament we (as believers) are entreated and commanded to imitate Christ. “Be holy as I am Holy” is the most familiar of these. In the Lord’s prayer Christ provided us with a template of how to pray. In this prayer is the phrase, “forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The debt that we owe as human beings is the debt of sin, or rather the penalty of it. Christ essentially says here that we are to forgive those who are debtors to us in the same manner that Christ forgave us. Basically, forgive those who sin against us as Christ forgives us when we sin against him.

There are a few instances in my life, as I’m sure there are in all our lives, in which I have had to extend forgiveness to someone who had sinned against me. For those sins that did not affect or hurt me very much, I did not have much trouble actually forgetting. To this day I probably cannot recall every single person who has ever sinned against me or the specific manner in which they wronged me. I do, however, specifically remember some of the sins that others have committed against me. Those sins incurred hurt on me that will not easily (if ever) be forgotten. But, just because I am not able to forget the specific instance does not mean that I am unable to forgive. I am confident that every individual person reading this has had the same experience.

Forgiveness is a choice, not an ability to remember or forget. It is a choice and a promise to not condemn the person who has sinned against you.

Conclusion

As we look at forgiveness it is true that God “remembers no more” our sins. Not that he has divine amnesia, but rather that he promises to treat us as if we bear the righteousness of Christ. The same is true for us as we forgive others.

In the light of  true forgiveness, God’s love shines so much brighter. It thrills my soul that he loves me, not forgetting my sin, but in spite of my sin! We  truly do have an awesome God and an awesome gospel.

Forgive and forget? No. God offers a much better forgiveness than that!