“Lord God, Eternal and Almighty Father, we confess and acknowledge without feigning or pretense before your Holy Majesty that we are poor sinners, conceived and born in iniquity and corruption, inclined to do evil, useless for all good; and that, of our vice, we transgress endlessly and ceaselessly your holy commandments, and by so doing we acquire by your just judgment, ruin and perdition upon ourselves. However, Lord, we are displeased with ourselves and our vices with true repentance, desire that your grace may grant us help in our calamity. May you be willing to have pity on us, God and Father, kind and full of mercy in the name of your son Jesus Christ our Lord: and by erasing our sins and stains, make us whole and increase in us from day to day the graces of the Holy Spirit, in order that, recognizing from our whole heart our unrighteousness, we may be touched by displeasure, which cause in us true repentance, which mortifying us to all sins, produce in us fruits of righteousness, which may be acceptable through the same Jesus our Lord. Amen.

(Translated from the old French Bible of Dr. W. Henry Venable by Maria S. Venable (Mara), April 9, 2009, Year of our Lord!)

Suppose…that the tumult of a man’s flesh were to cease and all that his thoughts can conceive, of earth, of water, and of air, should no longer speak to him; suppose that the heavens and even his own soul were silent, no longer thinking of itself but passing beyond; suppose that his dreams and the visions of his imagination spoke no more and that every tongue and every sign and ll that is transient grew silent – for all these things have the same message to tell, if only we can hear it, and their message is this: We did not make ourselves but he who abides forever made us. Suppose, we said, that after giving us this message and bidding us listen to him who made them, they fell silent and he alone should speak to us not through them but in his own voice, so that we should hear him speaking, not by any tongue of the flesh of by and angel’s voice, not in the sound of thunder or in some veiled parable, but in his own voice, the voice of the one whom we love in all these created things; suppose that we heard him himself, with none of these things between ourselves and him, just as in that brief moment… I had reached out in thought and touched the eternal Wisdom which abides over all things; suppose that this state were to continue and all other visions of things inferior were to be removed, so that this single visions entranced and absorbed the one who beheld it and enveloped him in inward joys in such a way that for him life was eternally the same as that instant of understanding for which we had longed so much – would not this be what we are to understand by the words “Come and share the joy of your Lord?”

-From Augustine, Confessions Book 9:10.

Be Encouraged:

• Matthew 6:26—I am are very valuable to Christ.
• Matthew 9:2; Mark 2:5—I am Father’s forgiven son/daughter.
• Matthew 9:36-38—I am the Good Shepherd’s shepherded sheep.
• Matthew 10:31; Luke 12:7—I am of great worth to Father.
• Matthew 12:12—I am of much value to Christ.
• Matthew 18:10-14—I am Father’s precious, protected little one.
• Mark 3:34-35—I am Christ’s brother or sister.
• Luke 6:35—I am a son or daughter of the Most High God.
• Luke 12:4—I am Christ’s friend.
• Luke 20:36; John 1:12; Romans 8:14-17; 1 John 3:2—I am a child of God.
• John 1:13—I am a child born of God.
• John 3:6—I am born of the Spirit.
• John 3:16—I am so loved by Father that he gave his only begotten Son to die for me so that I could live with him forever.
• John 8:35—I am Father’s forever son/daughter.
• John 10:28-30—I am eternally secure in God’s holy love.
• John 13:33—Father says of me, “You are my child.”
• John 15:5—I am a branch abiding in Christ the Vine.
• John 15:9—Jesus says of me, “As Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”
• John 15:14—Jesus says to me, “You are my friend.”
• John 15:15—Jesus says to me, “I no longer call you servant, but friend.”
• John 16:27—Jesus whispers to me, “The Father himself loves you.”
• John 17:23—Jesus says of me, “The Father loves you as he loves me.”
• Acts 10:43—My sins are forgiven.
• Acts 20:28—I am Christ’s flock.
• Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 1:2—Together with all the saints, I am God’s Church.
• Romans 1:7—I am loved by God.
• Romans 4:7-8—My transgressions are forgiven and my sins covered.
• Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-17; Colossians 1:21-22—I have peace with God.
• Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18—I have full, free, confident, bold access to God.
• Romans 5:5—God poured out his love into my heart.
• Romans 5:6-8—God demonstrated his love for me in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me.
• Romans 5:9—I am saved, delivered from wrath.
• Romans 5:10-11; Colossians 1:20—I am reconciled to God.
• Romans 8:1, 33-34—I will never be condemned because I am in Christ Jesus.
• Romans 8:14—I am among those called, “sons of God.”
• Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6—I have received the Spirit of sonship so I can cry, “Abba, Daddy.”
• Romans 8:17; Galatians 4:7; Ephesians 3:6; Titus 3:7—I am an heir of God.
• Romans 8:17—I am a joint-heir with Jesus.
• Romans 8:23—I am adopted into Father’s forever family.
• Romans 8:31—God is for me, never against me.

Here is a great reminder to encourage us and spur us on our walk with Christ, and to help overcome our gospel amnesia:

• Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17—I am a fisher of men.
• Matthew 5:13—I am the salt of the earth.
• Matthew 5:14—I am the light of the world.
• Matthew 28:19; Luke 14:27; John 8:31; 13:35; 15:8; Acts 6:1, 7; 11:25-26, 29; 14:20-22; 16:1—I am a disciple of Christ.
• Luke 24:48; Acts 1:8—I am Christ’s witness.
• John 3:16-18; 10:28-29; 17:3; Romans 5:21; 6:23; 1 John 5:11—I have eternal life in Christ.
• John 8:32, 36—I am set free from sin in Christ.
• John 10:10—I have abundant life in Christ.
• John 14:26; 16:13—I have been taught all things by the Holy Spirit.
• John 14:27; 16:33—I have peace in Christ.
• John 15:3—I am clean in Christ.
• John 15:4, 5, 8, 16; Romans 7:4—I bear much lasting fruit in Christ.
• John 15:5—I am a branch abiding in Christ the Vine.
• John 15:11—My joy is complete in Christ.
• John 16:33—I have overcome the world in Christ.
• John 17:16—I am not of this world.
• Acts 2:44; 4:32—I am a believer.
• Acts 5:20—I have new life in Christ.
• Acts 8:3; 2 Corinthians 1:1—Together with all the saints, I am God’s Church.
• Acts 11:26—I am a Christian, a little Christ.
• Acts 13:39; Romans 3:24, 26, 28, 30; 4:25; 5:1, 9, 18; 10:10; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:7—I am justified freely and fully.
• Acts 20:32; 1 Corinthians 6:11—I am sanctified.
• Romans 1:6—I am called to belong to Christ.
• Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 6:1, 2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; 4:21, 22; Philemon 4; Jude 3—I am a saint.
• Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14—I am redeemed in Christ.
• Romans 3:21-26; 4:3, 5, 6, 9, 22, 23, 24; 5:17, 19; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 3:9—I have been credited with Christ’s righteousness.
• Romans 5:17—I am a recipient of God’s abundant provision of grace.
• Romans 5:18—I have new life in Christ.
• Romans 6:2—I am dead to sin.
• Romans 6:3—I am baptized into Christ’s death.
• Romans 6:4—I am buried with Christ in his death to and over sin.
• Romans 6:4—I have been raised to new life in Christ.
• Romans 6:5—I am united with Christ in his resurrection.
• Romans 6:6—My old self is crucified with Christ.
• Romans 6:6—My body of sin has been done away with.
• Romans 6:6—I am no longer sin’s slave.
• Romans 6:7—I have been freed from sin in Christ.
• Romans 6:8—I died with Christ to sin.
• Romans 6:8—I live with Christ.
• Romans 6:11—I am dead to sin.
• Romans 6:11—I am alive to God.
• Romans 6:13—I have been brought from spiritual death to spiritual life.
• Romans 6:14—Sin shall not be my master.
• Romans 6:14—I am not under law, but under grace.
• Romans 6:18, 22—I have been set free from sin.
• Romans 6:19—I am a slave to righteousness, righteousness masters my being.
• Romans 6:22—I am a slave to God.
• Romans 7:4—I have died to the law.
• Romans 7:6—I serve Christ in the new way of the Spirit.
• Romans 7:22—My inner being delights in God’s law—his holy standards.
• Romans 7:25—In my innermost mind, I am a slave to God’s law.
• Romans 8:1—I will never suffer condemnation because I am in Christ.
• Romans 8:2—I am set free from the law of sin and death in Christ.
• Romans 8:4—I have met the righteous requirements of the law in Christ.
• Romans 8:5—My mindset is on spiritual affections and passions.
• Romans 8:9—I am not controlled by the flesh, but I am controlled by the Spirit.
• Romans 8:29—I am predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son.
• Romans 8:37—I am more than a conqueror in Christ.
• Romans 9:23—I have been prepared in advance by God to be glorious.
• Romans 10:9, 10, 13—I am saved in Christ.
• Romans 15:14—I am full of goodness in Christ.
• Romans 15:14—I am complete in knowledge in Christ.
• Romans 15:14—I am competent to disciple others in Christ.
• Romans 15:16—I am sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
• Romans 15:16—I am acceptable to God in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:2—I am sanctified in Christ Jesus.
• 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 5:26; Colossians 3:12—I am holy in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:8—I am blameless in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:30—I am wise in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 1:30—I am holiness to God in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 2:16—I have the mind of Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9—I am God’s fellow worker.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9—I am God’s field.
• 1 Corinthians 3:9—I am God’s building.
• 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16—I am God’s sacred temple.
• 1 Corinthians 6:11—I am washed in Christ.
• 1 Corinthians 6:19—I am the temple of the Holy Spirit.
• 1 Corinthians 6:20—I have been bought and redeemed with a price.
• 2 Corinthians 2:14—Christ always leads me in a triumphal victory march.
• 2 Corinthians 3:6—I am a competent minister of the new covenant in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 3:10—In Christ I have surpassing, lasting glory.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18—I am a growing reflection of the Lord’s glory.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18—I am increasingly being transformed into Christ’s likeness.
• 2 Corinthians 4:16—I am being renewed inwardly day by day in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17—I am a new creation in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 5:18—I am a minister of reconciliation.
• 2 Corinthians 5:20—I am Christ’s ambassador.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21—I have the righteousness of God in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 8:9—I am spiritually rich in Christ.
• 2 Corinthians 11:2—I am Christ’s spiritually pure virgin.
• Galatians 1:4—I have been rescued from this present evil age.
• Galatians 2:20—I am crucified with Christ.
• Galatians 3:13-14—I am redeemed from the curse.
• Galatians 6:1—I am spiritual in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:1—I am faithful in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:4—I have been chosen to be holy in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:4—I have been chosen to be blameless in Christ.
• Ephesians 1:17-19—I have God’s resurrection power actively working in me.
• Ephesians 2:5—I am alive with Christ.
• Ephesians 2:5, 8—I am saved by grace.
• Ephesians 2:6—I have been raised up with Christ.
• Ephesians 2:6—I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.
• Ephesians 2:10—I am Christ’s workmanship, his opus, his poem, his masterpiece.
• Ephesians 2:10—I was prepared in advance in Christ Jesus to do good works.
• Ephesians 2:15—Together with all the saints, I am a new person in Christ.
• Ephesians 2:21—Along with all the saints, I am God’s holy temple.
• Ephesians 2:22—I am a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
• Ephesians 3:16—I am strengthened with power through God’s Spirit.
• Ephesians 3:17—Christ dwells in my heart.
• Ephesians 3:17—I am rooted and established in love.
• Ephesians 3:18—I have power to grasp God’s great love for me in Christ.
• Ephesians 3:19—I am filled to the measure of all the fullness of God in Christ.
• Ephesians 3:20—Christ’s immeasurable resurrection power is at work within me.
• Ephesians 4:13—I am maturing to the full measure of the fullness of Christ.
• Ephesians 4:22—My old self is put off in Christ.
• Ephesians 4:23—I have been made new in the attitude of my mind in Christ.
• Ephesians 4:24—My new self is put on in Christ.
• Ephesians 4:24—I am created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
• Ephesians 5:8—I am now light in the Lord.
• Ephesians 5:9—The fruit of my life is goodness, righteousness, and truth.
• Ephesians 5:26—I am cleansed in Christ
• Ephesians 5:26—I am washed in Christ.
• Ephesians 5:27—Together with the Bride of Christ, I am presentable, radiant, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
• Philippians 2:1—I am united with Christ.
• Philippians 2:1—I am in fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
• Philippians 2:13—God works in me to accomplish his good purposes.
• Philippians 2:15—I am blameless and pure, a child of God without fault.
• Philippians 2:15—I shine like the stars in the universe in Christ.
• Philippians 3:9—I have a righteousness that comes from faith in Christ.
• Philippians 3:10—Christ’s resurrection power conforms me to his image.
• Philippians 3:20—My citizenship is in heaven.
• Philippians 4:13—I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
• Philippians 4:19—God meets all my needs through his riches in Christ Jesus.
• Colossians 1:2—I am a holy and faithful brother/sister in Christ.
• Colossians 1:12—I am qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints.
• Colossians 1:13—I have been rescued from the dominion of darkness.
• Colossians 1:13—I have been transported into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son.
• Colossians 1:22—I am holy in God’s sight, without blemish, and free from accusation.
• Colossians 2:10—I have been given fullness in Christ.
• Colossians 2:11—My old sinful nature/man/self/person has been put off.
• Colossians 2:12—I have been buried with Christ in baptism.
• Colossians 2:12—I have been raised with Christ from the dead.
• Colossians 2:13—God made me alive with Christ.
• Colossians 2:14-15—In Christ, sin is defeated and disarmed in my life.
• Colossians 2:20—I died with Christ to the world.
• Colossians 3:1—I have been raised with Christ.
• Colossians 3:3—I died with Christ.
• Colossians 3:3—My life is now hidden with Christ in God.
• Colossians 3:9—I have taken off the old self with its practices.
• Colossians 3:10—I have put on the new self in Christ.
• Colossians 3:10—The new me in Christ is being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator.
• 1 Thessalonians 3:13—I am blameless and holy before God’s presence.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23—God is sanctifying me through and through.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23—God keeps my whole spirit, soul, and body blameless.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:14—I am called to share in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2 Timothy 1:7—God placed within me his spirit of power, love, and wisdom.
• 2 Timothy 2:3-4—I am a good soldier in Jesus Christ.
• 2 Timothy 2:5—I am a victorious athlete in Jesus Christ.
• 2 Timothy 2:6—I am a disciplined, hard working farmer in Jesus Christ.
• Titus 3:5—I am saved, washed, re-birthed, and renewed in Christ and by the Spirit.
• Hebrews 1:3—I am purified from sin in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 2:10—I am brought to glory in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 2:11—I am made holy in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 7:25—I am saved completely.
• Hebrews 8:10; 10:16—God’s law is in my mind, written on my heart.
• Hebrews 9:12—I have eternal redemption in Christ.
• Hebrews 9:14—My conscience is cleansed in Christ.
• Hebrews 9:15—I am set free from sin in Christ.
• Hebrews 9:26-27—My sins are done away with and taken away in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 10:2—I am cleansed once for all, guiltless in Christ.
• Hebrews 10:10—I have been made holy once for all by Christ’s sacrifice.
• Hebrews 10:14—I have been made perfect forever in and by Christ.
• Hebrews 10:22—I am cleansed and washed in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:3—I am born again, given new birth in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:18-19—I am redeemed from my old empty way of life by Christ’s precious blood.
• 1 Peter 1:22—I am purified by faith in Christ.
• 1 Peter 1:23—I have been born again of imperishable seed.
• 1 Peter 2:5—I am a living stone, being built into a spiritual house.
• 1 Peter 2:5—Along with all the saints, I am a holy priesthood.
• 1 Peter 2:9—Along with all the saints, I am a chosen people.
• 1 Peter 2:9—Along with all the saints, I am a member of a royal priesthood.
• 1 Peter 2:9—Along with all the saints, I am a citizen of a holy nation.
• 1 Peter 2:9-10—Along with all the saints, I am a people belonging to God.
• 1 Peter 2:9—I am called out of darkness into Christ’s wonderful light.
• 2 Peter 1:3—God’s Divine power has given me everything I need for life and       godliness.
• 2 Peter 1:4—Through God’s great and precious promises I participate in the Divine nature.
• 2 Peter 1:4—Through God’s great and precious promises I have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
• 1 John 2:20—I have an anointing from the Holy One and I know the truth.
• 1 John 4:4—I have overcome the world, the flesh, and the Devil because greater is he who is in me, than he who is in the world.
• 1 John 4:4, 6—I am from God.
• 1 John 4:7; 5:1—I am born of God.
• 1 John 5:4-5—Born of God, I overcome the world by faith in Christ.
• Jude 24—I stand before God’s glorious presence without fault and with great joy.
• Revelation 1:5—I am freed from my sins by Christ’s blood.
• Revelation 1:6—God has made me, together with all the saints, a kingdom of priests.
• Revelation 19:7-8, 14—Along with all the saints, I am the pure Bride of Christ, clean, white, and righteous.

For the Christian, to develop a worldview that is in alignment with Scripture is paramount. As Paul says,”Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom. 12:1) As Christians, we are each called to be actively examining our beliefs, and where there is incongruity between our worldview and Scripture (and there always will to some degree) we are to seek to conform more fully to Christ as He is revealed in the Word.

About this Wilkens and Sanford remark in Hidden Worldviews: In reality, our stories are structured, in larger part, by forces that reside beneath the surface. My actions manifest the subterranean influence of my self-understanding, my convictions and my values. Why is this so important? What my character becomes, is also molded by what I believe and value.

As Christians, most-if not all of us, would have no problem saying that it is often very difficult to live a life that is consistent with what we say we believe. At the same time, we should agree that:

1) the central convictions of a Christian worldview are consistent with each other and
2) acting in accordance with Christian convictions yields good results in our lives (and glorify God)

Without reflection, ideas contrary to a Christian worldview creep into our convictional beliefs, and we might not even realize it. The problem here is that, while confessional beliefs exist on the conscious level (which must be the case if we “confess” them), many of our convictional beliefs work on the subconscious level.

Our Christian story can easily be hijacked by alien stories that take our lives in directions we don’t want to go. Because what we are not conscious of can hurt us, it is important to take an inventory of our true convictions.

-excerpts from Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives by Steve Wilkens and Mark Sanford

So what is a worldview?

James Sire, in The Universe Next Door, does an excellent job is supplying us with a working definition:

“A worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart, that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic constitution of reality, and that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being.”

Let’s unpack that a little bit:

1) a worldview is a commitment, a fundamental orientation of the heart

The heart is the seat of our will, desires, and thoughts and it is what shapes and determines our identities, ethics and actions. This is where the seeds of our worldview are germinated and even if we don’t fully understand it, this is where the “fruit” from our worldview will be produced and ultimately manifest in our lives.

“As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man.” Prov. 27:19

As Jesus says:”For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Matt. 12:34

2) that can be expressed as a story or in a set of presuppositions about the basic constitution of reality (true of false, consciously or subconsciously, consistent or inconsistent)

We don’t understand the world, and our part in it as some random, vague set of facts, but rather as a grand story in which we are the central player, sometimes heroically and often tragically. Our worldviews are shaped by many things such as our heritage, family, peers and media, to name a few. Our perceptions about reality are being influenced constantly and developing a set of presuppositions about how we see and relate to the world, whether we are aware of it or not. Think of it like a great underground river, one that we will begin to explore.

3) that provides the foundation on which we live and move and have our being

Our worldview shapes our identity and our character, so it will be seen in our actions, our speech, our relationships and ultimately in our ethics. There are countless surveys and polls by Barna, et. al. that show there is a tremendous gulf between those who profess Christianity and the central tenets, beliefs and ethics of Scripture. Why are divorce statistics so comparable for those who profess Christianity and those who don’t? Why are so many frequent stories in the media about fallen pastors, deacons and sunday school leaders?

Well the quick answer would be as a result of sin, but there is something we can learn about how our worldviews shape and affect our lives, and ultimately our witness to Christ.

In this, as Pascal so profoundly pointed out, consists the greatness and the miserableness of man. He longs for truth and is false by nature. He yearns for rest and throws himself from one diversion upon another. He pants for a permanent and eternal bliss and seizes on the pleasures of a moment. He seeks for God and loses himself in the creature. He is a born son of the house and he feeds on the husks of the swine in a strange land. He forsakes the fountain of living waters and hews out broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jer. 2:13). He is as a hungry man who dreams that he is eating, and when he awakes finds that his soul is empty; and he is like a thirsty man who dreams that he is drinking, and when he awakes finds that he is faint and that his soul has appetite (Isa. 29:8).

Science cannot explain this contradiction in man. It reckons only with his greatness and not with his misery, or only with his misery and not with his greatness. It exalts him too high, or it depresses him too far, for science does not know of his Divine origin, nor of his profound fall. But the Scriptures know of both, and they shed their light over man and over mankind; and the contradictions are reconciled, the mists are cleared, and the hidden things are revealed. Man is an enigma whose solution can he found only in God.”

-from Our Reasonable Faith by Herman Bavinck

-

In creation we find creatures of wondrous particularity – each of them, a display of God’s inventiveness and love. In some marvelous chapters of the book of Job (38-41) we read that God revels in his creation. God walks in the depths of the sea, cuts water channels through deserts, and leads bear cubs out of their dens. God fathers the rain and mothers the ice. He makes a pet of their mysterious Leviathan, perhaps a sea creature (41:5). When the sea bursts from the womb, God wraps it in swaddling clothes. He also speaks to the sea, as if it were his own “rambunctious and exuberant child.” “This far you may come, and no farther,” says God “with soft words” (41:3). Lightning bolts say to God, “Here we are” (38:35). And at the dawn of creation, angels and stars form into an audience and then a choir as they watch God go to work. In one spine-tingling verse, the book of Job says that God laid the foundation of the earth “while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (38:7).

These highly  poetic chapters do not teach us zoology, but they do teach us something important. The chapters teach us that God loves creation. God celebrates creation. God even plays with creation. Responding in kind, an unspoiled creature turns to God with praise generated by being or acting “in character,” by expressing its nature as God’s creature. Humpback whales, for example, sing underwater arias; when they’ve finished, they often breach, soaring into an explosive half-twist back-flop with their “wings” flung wide. One researcher who studies female humpbacks and their offspring reported seeing a juvenile “leap from the water a hundred times in a row.” Maybe singing and breaching is the language these great beasts of the deep use to talk to God, “to cajole him, plead with him, play with him, and make covenants with him.’

-excerpt from Engaging God’s World by Cornelius Plantinga Jr.

• We are given a new history, because his past counts as our past: his perfect life and obedient death is credited as ours. His death to the ruling power of sin counts as ours, securing our freedom from sin’s tyranny.

• We are given a new identity, because when we are joined to Christ, God sees us in his Son. In fact, we become saints, children of God, and heirs with Christ.

• We are given a new destiny, because in the resurrection of Christ, the age to come has dawned. His resurrection guarantees that we will be raised from the dead as well, and, in fact, empowers us to live in newness of life in the here and now.

Jesus has not just given us a ticket to heaven. He has changed our essential identity. He has irrevocably altered the effect of our past on our present and future by causing his death and resurrection to count as ours. We really are new creatures, even as we press on by God’s grace to become more holy.

The point is that sanctification (freedom from the dominion of sin), no less than justification (freedom from the guilt of sin), comes through faith in Christ alone. Everything we need for life and godliness is found in him! Transformation can happen in no other way.

The gospel reminds us that Christ himself is the one and only human being who has perfectly imaged the holy character of God. He is the pioneer of our salvation, the new Adam, and therefore, the head of the new creation. We can only reflect the image of God as we become like Christ. And we can only become like him if we are in him. As Sinclair Ferguson rightly says,

Perfect humanity, perfect holiness, is first of all expressed in him . . . The nature of sanctification is that it is true God-likeness. But true God-likeness in human form is Christ-likeness. Since Christ-likeness is the full expression of the image of God in man, true sanctification is true humanness. The only resources for such sanctification are in Christ. Our sanctification is Christ’s sanctification of himself in our humanity progressively applied to and realized in us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit . . . Sanctification can be ours only by means of the resources of Christ, brought to us through the Holy Spirit as he takes what is Christ’s, reveals it to us, and thus conforms us more and more into his likeness, from one degree of glory to another, as we gaze on the glory of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18).

You and I will experience deep and lasting change only as the Holy Spirit applies the resources of the gospel to our hearts and lives. The gospel tells us that we are already freed from sin as a ruling power. The gospel also points us to Christ as the pattern for holiness; he is the quintessentially sanctified human being. And the gospel promises that the riches of Christ, applied to our hearts, will effectively produce progressive change in our lives.

-excerpt from Brian Hedges excellent book - Christ Formed in You

Or: How Is All Preaching Gospel Preaching?
Or: How Is All Preaching the Proclamation of Christ Crucified?

Ten Theses:

1. Whatever lasting good God ever does or ever did or ever will do for any individual person, he does and did and will do because of his free, utterly undeserved grace.

What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (1 Corinthians 4:7).

He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy (Romans 9:15–16).

We have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:9–10).

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared (Psalms 130:3–4).

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4–5).

God saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace,which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began (2 Timothy 1:9).

2. This free grace, that gives every lasting good to people, can benefit us justly only because of Jesus’ wrath-absorbing, righteousness-providing, sin-atoning, guilt removing, substitutionary death for us.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus (Romans 3:23–26).

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32).

All the promises of God find their Yes in him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

3. Without this kind of atoning death of Christ, God’s grace would not save us, but only increase our condemnation because of the hardness of our hearts.

Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed (Romans 2:4–5).

4. But by the blood of Christ, God really purchased us for himself and secured not only every lasting good that we receive, but also the gift of repentance and faith through which we receive everything else.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men (1 Corinthians 7:23).

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood (Acts 20:28).

It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake (Philippians 1:29).

By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8–9).

5. Therefore every sermon that holds out any lasting good to any person (as every Christian sermon must) should be based on, and interwoven with, the gospel of the living Christ’s substitutionary death.

I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

I take Paul to mean not that he has joy in nothing but the cross, but that he has joy in anything only because of the cross, and he wants to make that clear.

But for the Christian, all other boasting should also be a boasting in the cross. All exultation in anything else should be exultation in the cross. Because, for redeemed sinners, every good thing—indeed every bad thing that God turns for good—was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ—as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ—is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

6. This gospel basis and gospel interweaving of our sermons should be clear enough so that gospel-deniers (like Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, legalists, libertines, etc) will not approve of our sermons. There should be enough of Christ and of his cross that those who deny the gospel don’t approve the sermon.

7. This gospel basis and gospel interweaving of our sermons should be clear enough so that the living Jesus will be honored as the ground and goal of the message because of his grace-securing sacrifice for us.

8. This gospel basis and gospel interweaving of our sermons should be clear enough so that the imperative that flows from the message is, first and foremost, faith in the blood-bought reality that God is 100% for us in Christ (that is, faith in the justifying work of Christ), and then, secondly, the obedience that comes from this faith (that is, the fruit of the sanctifying work of the Spirit).

9. In this sense then every sermon proclaims Christ. His atoning work is the ground of all it offers. His glory is the ultimate goal of all it aims to achieve. And the written revelation of Christ’s unfolding ways in history (that is, Scripture) is the only authoritative source from which we bring this work and ground and this glory to light (expository exultation).

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (Ephesians 3:8).

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ (Colossians 1:28).

10. Thus with Christ-crucified as the ground and goal and matter of every sermon (and all of life) the ultimate aim of God in creation is advanced: the praise of the glory of God’s grace, through the joy of his people in him.

God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4–6).

The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4).

- from the Pastor as Prophet by John Piper