The life of holiness is the life of faith in which the believer with a deepening knowledge of his own sin and helplessness apart from Christ's work, increasingly casts himself upon the Lord, and seeks the power of the Spirit and the wisdom and comfort of the Bible to battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. --- Edmund P. Clowney, The Church, p. 89.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience --- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. 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 Church --- by grace you have been saved --- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepare beforehand that should walk in them (Ephesians 2:1-10).
A hymn to read, sing, hum, or whistle, to the glory of God:
Christ of All My Hopes the Ground, Ralph Wardlaw, 1817.
No comments:
Post a Comment