Shaun Shahan

Husband, Father, and a Wholly Mess. Real Estate, Jesus, and Fly Fishing.Easily annoyed, but am trying...406 Boy in the Desert..

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

The law is a good servant but a terrible master.

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

The believer is not free from obedience. He is free from seeking acceptance by his obedience.

He is not free from the moral law of God. He is free from the law as a covenant of life and death.

He obeys, yes, but he no longer obeys with the rope of condemnation around his neck.

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

The Father's astonishing love is seen in His beloved Son.

The believer's confidence is in His beloved Son.

The believer's hope is in His beloved Son.

The believer's glorification comes through His beloved Son.

And ultimately, the believer's destiny is to be like His beloved Son.

[Justin Perdue @justin_perdue]

2,000 years ago:

A cross stood.
A tomb was empty.
A serpent's head was crushed.
And death died.

[Jerry Bridges @bridgeswisdom]

Jesus perfectly satisfied the righteous requirements of God’s law, both in its precepts and its penalty for our failure to perfectly obey.

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

[The gospel] commands nothing. It does not enjoin us even to believe and repent; but it declares to us what God in Christ as a God of grace has done, and what He promises still to do for us and in us and by us.

John Colquhoun, (A Treatise on the Law and the Gospel, 100.)

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

The imperatives of Scripture are grounded in the indicative of what God has done.

They arise from union with Christ, are animated by gratitude, and are directed by the law in its third use.

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Here are two of the most successful lies ever told:
1. Good people go to heaven.
2. All religions ultimately lead to the same God.

Let’s start with the first one.

If we were good enough, or able to become good enough, to go to heaven, then why in the world did Christ come? He came precisely because we are not good enough.

All of us are sinners. As Paul says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We fall short of loving God perfectly and loving our neighbor perfectly, which is exactly what God requires. In fact, even our righteousness is “like a polluted garment” (Isa. 64:6).

Jesus came to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. He is the one who is good enough. He lived the life we have failed to live and died the death we deserved to die.

So it’s not good people who go to heaven. It’s forgiven sinners who trust in the good work of Christ.

Now consider the second lie: that all religions lead to the same God.

There is only one true God, and this one true God has given us one full and free way of salvation: Christ alone.

We heard this from Peter today in one of the chapters in Bible in One Year. He said, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Jesus himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Now, that doesn't mean God loves only some people. Christ died for all people. God loves all people. God desires all people to be saved.

But there is a scandal of particularity to the Christian faith that must not be ignored. The salvation God offers is available nowhere else but in Christ.

So confess your sins. Acknowledge that you are not, and never will be, good enough. But Christ is good enough. Trust in him, because he gives full and free forgiveness, full and free salvation, and a place in the kingdom that has no end.

[Justin Perdue @justin_perdue]

Hard as we may try, we will not be able to turn this world into the new heavens and the new earth.

We await the return of our Redeemer. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

[Shaun Shahan @ShaunShahan]

@Travis1 Tracey Armstrong

[Tony Phelps ✝️🐑 @RevTonyPhelpsRI]

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.—John 14:3

Richard Sibbes: Heaven is not heaven without Christ. It is better to be in any place with Christ than to be in heaven itself without him. Paul loved to see Christ, to embrace him, and enjoy him that had done so much and suffered so much for his soul. To be with Christ is to be at the springhead of all happiness. Every creature thinks itself best in its own element, that is the place it thrives in, and enjoys its happiness in; now Christ is the element of a Christian. Again, it is far better, because to be with Christ is to have the marriage consummated. Is not marriage better than the contract? Is not home better than absence? To be with Christ is to be at home. Is not triumph better than to be in conflict? But to be with Christ is to triumph over all enemies, to be out of Satan’s reach. Is not perfection better than imperfection? Here all is but imperfect, in heaven there is perfection. Here the grace in a man is with combat of flesh and spirit, but in heaven there is pure peace, pure joy, pure grace. Grace indeed is glory here, but it is glory with conflict. Is it not much far better to die, that we may be with Christ, than to live a conflicting life here? Death is but a grim sergeant that lets us into a glorious palace, that takes off our rags, that we may be clothed with better robes, that ends all our misery, and is the beginning of all our happiness. Why should we be afraid of death? It is but a departure to a better condition. It is but as Jordan to the children of Israel, by which they passed to Canaan. Of itself it is an enemy indeed, but now it is harmless, nay, now it has become a friend. It is one part of the church’s journey. It ends all our misery and sin; and it is the suburbs of heaven. It is a shame for Christians to be afraid of that which Paul makes the object of his desire (Phil. 1:23).

Refreshment for the Soul (BT), 30 June devo.

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

"See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are" (1 John 3:1).

The Father's love does not merely forgive us.
The Father's love does not merely adopt us.

The Father's love ultimately conforms us to the image of His beloved Son. In other words, the goal of the Father's love is that His children become like His Son.

As the Apostle John declares, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2).

The Father's love is so great that He does not merely call us His children; He transforms His children into the likeness of His Son.

The Father's love begins with adoption and culminates in glorification.

The Father loves His children so completely that He will not rest until they behold His beloved Son and, beholding Him, become like Him.

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

Do not search for power for godliness in places God never promised to deliver it.

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

You are not an interruption to God.
He invites your burdens.
He delights in your weakness.
He calls you to cast it all on Him, because He cares.

[Jerry Bridges @bridgeswisdom]

Our answer to the question, “Who am I?”, is to be found in neither our achievements, nor our failures, but in Christ alone.

[Jeffrey Perry® @JeffreyPerry09]

The gospel produces what the law commands without becoming the command itself.

[Steve Meister @SteveMeisterVDM]

I've found that clarity on the law-gospel distinction in our congregation has led to more confession of sin, greater zeal for obedience, and a heart for evangelism.

Don't listen to those who say it breeds antinomianism or that “glawspel” is the answer to nominal Christianity.

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

Identity before conduct. Christ before Christian. Indicative before imperative. Grace before obedience.

[Paramount Church @ParamountChurch]

As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. Now, little children, abide in Him. . .” ~1 John 2:27-28

One of the most beautiful features of 1 John 2:27 is that the Apostle John grounds the imperative in the indicative.

Before John exhorts his little children, “Abide in Him,” (2:28) he first declares what the Holy Spirit teaches them: “You abide in Him.” The command rests upon the promise.

The Holy Spirit teaches John’s little children that they already belong to the risen and ascended Christ, and therefore they remain in Him.

The emphasis falls on this declaration: “You abide in Him.” This is what the Holy Spirit speaks to God’s people. The anointing of the Holy Spirit assures God’s people that they abide in the risen and ascended Christ, and from that assurance comes the call to continue abiding in Him.