Sep 16
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The angel Gabriel was sent to both Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist and Mary, the mother of the Lord with the announcement of a supernatural birth for them both; to Zacharias, the birth of his son, John the Baptist; to Mary, the birth of her son, Jesus. The response of Zacharias was “How can I know?” (Luke 1:18), and Mary was “How?” (Luke 1:34). Zacharias was met with a rebuke for unbelief. (Luke 1:20). Mary is commended as, “Blessed is she that believed” (Luke 1:45). Zacharias was questioning how he could be sure it would happen, since it was humanly impossible. Mary believed it would surely happen even though humanly impossible. She just did not know how it would happen. Faith is not understanding how. Faith is simply believing what God has said. “Abraham believed God.” A child-like faith is believing what God has said, simply because He said it. Simplistic? Yes. Truth always is.
Todd Nibert
“That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives.” – Luke 1:74-75
It is no human enemy that could prevent this service. This enemy that could prevent this service is sin! This is an enemy I cannot defeat! But thank God, it is the deadly enemy that He has defeated by His work on Calvary’s tree. Because it has been defeated and put away, every believer can now serve Him without fear. Since the sin has been blotted out, we can now serve Him in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life here and throughout eternity.
Todd Nibert
By faith in Christ we receive internally that which Christ has accomplished for us externally: redemption, righteousness, justification, forgiveness, holiness, peace, and reconciliation. Faith does not accomplish these boons of grace. Faith receives them and experiences them by grace.
Don Fortner
“God be Thanked,
That Ye Were the Servants of Sin”
Romans 6:17
Robert Hawker
If I know anything of my own heart, I hope that I can truly say, I hate sin, I would not willingly and wilfully commit a single sin for the world. Yea, I loathe myself in my own sight for sin, the sin of my poor fallen nature. And sin becomes more bitter to me, as Christ becomes more precious. But, with all this, I say, I would rather be a sinner saved, and saved in such a way as I am saved, by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, than to have never known sin, neither known Christ as a Savior.
True Religion
John Newton
True religion is a serious and a personal concern. It arises from a right knowledge of God and ourselves; a sense of the great things he has done for fallen man; a persuasion, or at least a well-grounded hope, of our own interest in his favor; and a principle of unbounded love to him who thus first loved us. It consists in an entire surrender of ourselves, and our all, to God; in setting him continually before us, as the object of our desires, the scope and inspector of our actions, and our only refuge and hope in every trouble: finally, in making the goodness of God to us the motive and model of our behavior to our fellow-creatures: to love, pity, relieve, instruct, forbear, and forgive them, as occasions offer, because we ourselves both need and experience these things at the hand of our heavenly Father.
The two great points to which true religion tends, and which it urges the soul, where it has taken place, incessantly to press after, are, communion with God, and conformity to him; and as neither of these can be fully attained in this life, it teaches us to pant after a better life; to withdraw our thoughts and affections from temporal things, and fix them on that eternal state, where our desires shall be abundantly satisfied; and the work begun by grace shall be crowned with glory
If there be one God subsisting in three persons, then let us give equal reverence to all the persons in the Trinity. There is not more or less in the Trinity. The Father is not more God than the Son and Holy Ghost. There is an order in the Godhead, but no degrees. One person has not a majority or super eminence above another, therefore we must give equal worship to all the persons.
Thomas Watson
The Holy Trinity
“There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” (1 John 5:7)
All true Christians are Trinitarians. That means, we worship the one true and living God in the trinity, or tri-unity of his holy Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The Lord our God is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). Yet, this one great and glorious God subsists in three distinct, but equal divine Persons, as 1 John 5:7 clearly asserts.
Essential Doctrine
The doctrine of the trinity is an essential element of Gospel truth. The doctrine of the Trinity is often represented as a speculative point of theology, which must not be pressed too tenaciously. But we cannot place too much importance upon it. It is, I repeat, an essential element of Gospel truth. It is interwoven in every aspect of our salvation, all the doctrines of the Gospel, and the experience of God’s people. We cannot do without it. As soon as a man is convinced of his sinful and miserable condition by nature, he perceives that there is a Divine Person whom he has offended, and that there is need for another Divine Person to make satisfaction for his offences, and that there is need for a third Divine Person to give him life eternal, to regenerate, sanctify, and preserve him.
As you read the Bible, it becomes obvious to your mind, if you are a believer, that all three of the Divine Persons of the Holy Trinity are actively engaged in the salvation of your soul. This fact is nowhere more clearly revealed than in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (1:3-14)-
Purposed by the Father
Our salvation was planned by God the Father in his eternal purpose of grace. — “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him: in love having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
Purchased by the Son
Our salvation was purchased by God the Son in his substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary. — “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
Performed by the Holy Spirit
And our salvation was performed in our hearts by the gracious, effectual work of God the Holy Spirit who gave us faith in Christ. — “Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”
To those who truly believe, those who have this precious faith, “HE IS PRECIOUS” (I Peter 2:7). This is one way I know that God has given me this faith. The faith which I have will not permit me to look to, trust in, rest upon, live upon, or have any hope in anyone but Christ, and Christ alone! Unto me “HE IS PRECIOUS!” – Maurice Montgomery