The Redeemer Gives His Life for the Sheep

The Redeemer Gives His Life for the Sheepby Jeremy Walker/

Read all the posts published to date in this 16-part series on the essential truths of the Christian faith. 

HOW IS SALVATION ACCOMPLISHED? — PART 2

The Redeemed

The Lord tells us that, as the good Shepherd, he lays down his life “for the sheep.” There is particularity in this redemption. There is something definite in its intent and accomplishment. We are back to the question of God’s purpose, design, and result.

If Christ died for all the sins of all men, then all must be saved. Clearly that is neither taught in the Scriptures nor seen in the world. If Christ died for some sins of all men then all are damned, and once again both revelation and experience forbid such a conclusion. We are left with only one other possibility: that Christ Jesus died for all the sins of some people. But who are they? He tells us: his sheep.

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John Owen on Genuine Faith

John Owen on Genuine Faithby Brian G. Hedges /

Last week we learned a bit about the life of John Owen, whose 400th birthday we’ve been celebrating in the now-dwindling year of 2016. We also learned about the existence of a little-known gem of a book he wrote that was originally titled Gospel Grounds and Evidences of the Faith of God’s Elect. In the conclusion of this two-part series, we examine four reasons why the book remains valuable to the church today.

A Unique Faith

First, in the book Owen highlighted the difference between gospel, or evangelical, Christianity and all other systems of religion. This difference is not always obvious, especially in books addressed to the practical lives of Christians. Many books (and sermons) abound with moral directions and practical exhortations, yet fail to distinguish gospel Christianity from mere religion.

It is now in vogue to use “gospel” as an adjective. Books on “gospel” holiness or being “gospel centered” or “gospel driven” fill our shelves. Some of us may imagine this is a recent development. Yet it is not uncommon to find “gospel” used as an adjective in Owen’s works. Indeed, he did so in this book at least nine times, as he wrote six times of “gospel holiness,” twice of “gospel repentance,” and once each of “gospel graces” and “gospel ordinances.” Owen predated the gospel-centered movement by three-and-a-half centuries!

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John Owen’s Lesser-Known Gem of Puritan Theology

John Owen’s Lesser-Known Gem of Puritan Theologyby Brian G. Hedges /

John Owen was born in 1616, the same year that William Shakespeare died. While Shakespeare is justly famous as the greatest playwright in the history of the English language, Owen is arguably our greatest theologian. The son of a minister himself, Owen lived through both the highest and lowest points of the Puritan era. He served as Oliver Cromwell’s chaplain in the 1650s. He opposed the move to make Cromwell king in 1657. And after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he faced persecution for being a nonconformist, which significantly curtailed his influence and changed the course of the rest of his life and ministry.

Though he was raised in a Puritan household, Owen did not come to a settled assurance concerning his own salvation until 1642. He attended a church service at St. Mary Aldermanbury, London, and expected to hear the famous Edmund Calamy preach. But a substitute, whose name Owen never discovered, filled the pulpit instead and preached from the text “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” (Matt. 8:26 KJV) God used this sermon to bring Owen to assurance of his salvation.[1]

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John Owen’s Surprising Counsel to Struggling, Doubting Believers

John Owen's surprising word to doubting believersby Brian G. Hedges /

In his masterful exposition of Psalm 130, the seventeenth-century Puritan John Owen gave the church one of the most comprehensive theological and pastoral treatments of forgiveness of sin and assurance ever written. This is one of my favorite of Owen’s books and one that I return to over and again.

Near the end of his exposition, Owen includes a wonderfully encouraging chapter for saints struggling with sin. Having already presented an extensive exposition of the nature of gospel forgiveness, Owen is now turning to objections. And among the objections he addresses are those “arising from the consideration of [the soul’s] present state and condition as to actual holiness, duties, and sins” (Owen, Works 6:600). Owen further explains:

Souls complain, when in darkness and under temptations, that they cannot find that holiness, nor those fruits of it in themselves, which they suppose an interest in pardoning mercy will produce. Their hearts they find are weak, and their duties worthless. If they were weighed in the balance, they would all be found too light. In the best of them there is such a mixture of self, hypocrisy, unbelief, vain-glory, that they are even ashamed and confounded with the remembrance of them” (Works, 6:600).

I suppose any earnest and honest Christian has experienced this: doubts regarding the reality of God’s forgiveness, struggles with assurance, that are rooted in the consciousness of one’s struggles with sin and weakness in holiness.

How do you suppose Owen responds?

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The Third Anchor Point of Faith

The Third Anchor Point of Faithby Jeremy Walker/

Read all the posts published to date in this 16-part series on the essential truths of the Christian faith. 

HOW IS SALVATION ACCOMPLISHED? — PART 1

The Redeemer

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep,
sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees;
and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep.
I am the good shepherd;
and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.
As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father;
and I lay down My life for the sheep.
And other sheep I have which are not of this fold;
them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice;
and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again.
No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
This command I have received from My Father.
(John 10:11–18, NKJV)

We now consider our third anchor point of faith, the third truth we must face and embrace if we are to be faithful to God in our doctrine and, consequently, in our practice. We began by asking, in effect, “Who needs to be saved?” Our answer was, every person. The answer takes account of the fallen condition of all mankind, and the answer is vital, because a false diagnosis will draw forth a false remedy, if one is considered necessary at all. Our next question was, “On what basis are sinners saved?” Our answer was, by virtue of being chosen by a sovereignly gracious God.

But those who are currently lost and chosen for salvation still need to be saved. And so we must now ask, “How is this salvation accomplished?” We need to consider by what means elect sinners are saved. How can we reconcile the three indisputable facts of a holy God, a lost world, and a saved church? Where do justice and mercy meet?

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Five Questions for Bill Farley on The Secret of Spiritual Joy

Five Questions for Bill Farley on The Secret of Spiritual Joyby Bill Farley /

Editor’s Note: Recently a Christian book club in the northeast purchased 1800 copies of Bill Farley’s latest book, The Secret of Spiritual Joy. We found that really encouraging (can 1800 avid Christian readers be wrong?). So, with the fourth Thursday in November about to kick off another holiday season, we wanted to take this opportunity to feature Bill and his recent book on…gratitude, also known as Thanksgiving! To help spread the biblical wisdom of this book, we are also putting it on a pre-Black Friday sale. Through Wednesday, 11/23, the paperback is on sale here for $5.99, and ebook versions are available for just 99 cents, here and on Kindle. If you like to review books online, you might also want to pick up a free copy. So, here’s a little background on Bill and his recent book. 

Who is Bill Farley?

What’s your “origin story”? Tell us a little about your personal background and your current roles.

I am the oldest of nine children. Raised in a  Roman Catholic household, I have spent my entire life in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. At age 22, God opened my heart to the gospel and I was converted to the Evangelical faith.

Before entering full-time ministry, I spent twenty-seven years owning and operating a small business. In 2002, with five other families, I planted the church that I now pastor. It has grown to about five hundred Sunday attenders, split between two campuses.

Judy and I have five adult children. Three are either pastors or married to pastors. In addition, we have twenty-three grandchildren. Eleven live with us in Spokane, WA. Four live in Ogden, UT, four live in Greensboro, NC, and four live in Durham, U.K.

The Story Behind the Book

How did the idea for this book get started, and then mature to the point where you decided to start writing?

Like my other books, The Secret of Spiritual Joy is an application of Christ’s cross to daily life. Through reading Jonathan Edwards and the Puritans in my late thirties, I entered more deeply into the message of the cross. For the first time I really understood what it meant, why it was necessary, and how it impacted everyday life. One application was to grumbling and self-pity.

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Providence In Our Lives

Providence in Our Lives, by Jerry Bridgesby Jerry Bridges /

Read all the posts published to date in this 9-part series on God’s Providence from Cruciform’s good friend, the late Jerry Bridges. This was a teaching Jerry was presenting in the months leading up to his fatal heart attack in March, 2016.  

GOD’S PROVIDENCE, PART EIGHT OF NINE

I grew up in poverty during the Great Depression years. No plans for college and no money. During the last semester of my senior year in high school I saw an article in the newspaper about a new officer-training program for the Navy. I applied, passed the exam, and received a four-year fully paid scholarship. I graduated and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet where I met Jim Wilson at a meeting. He told me about the Navigators and one thing led to another and I eventually ended up on staff.

Think what had to happen for all this to come to pass.

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Six Proper Responses to Salvation

Six Proper Responses to Salvation: On What Basis Are We Saved? - Part 3by Jeremy Walker/

Read all the posts published to date in this 16-part series on the essential truths of the Christian faith. 

ON WHAT BASIS ARE WE SAVED? – PART 3

Chosen

In the previous post in this series, we asked the questions, “On what basis are we chosen?,” and “To what end are we chosen?” We learned form Scripture that we are chosen, not out of merit, but out of mercy, for holiness, and for God’s glory. Today we discuss four appropriate biblical responses to those truths.

God Behind Everything

What hangs behind all these gracious actions and transactions? It is the very being of God and his worthiness to be praised.

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” “Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?” For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:33–36 NKJV)

If we resent or deny these teachings, must ask whether or not we have truly grasped something of the revealed glory of the unimaginably glorious God. Are we truly prepared to offer to the Lord of heaven and earth that which is his by virtue of who he is and by right of all that he does? We must let God be God!

Here we have, by all scriptural accounts and testimonies, an act of free, sovereign, gracious, merciful love. Given the heinous disposition and horrible condition of man as a sinful and sinning creature, all the initiative in salvation must come from God. All the saving good that man enjoys must arise from the Lord’s deliberate and determinative love: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion” (Exodus 33:19 NKJV).

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What to Do When You Are Tempted: Counsel from John Owen

How do you handle temptation?by Brian G. Hedges /

How do you handle temptation?

I’m not talking about the fleeting, seemingly benign thought of sin that holds initial allure but is easily dismissed. (Though we should be on guard against these kinds of thoughts, too).

No, I’m talking about that moment when you’ve savored the juicy morsel and relish the taste. You clamp down your jaws and suddenly feel the sharp, piercing desire for more, and a forceful tug towards deliberate, willful sin. You know that you’ve swallowed a hook. The angler is reeling you in. Your better judgment, and God’s Word, and the Holy Spirit are whispering “No!” but your appetites and emotions are screaming “Yes!”

You are like Peter in the courtyard, your heart frenzied by fear, about to commit an act of cowardice and treachery. Or David on the rooftop, seized by lust’s hot desire, teetering on the brink of adultery. Or Moses at the rock, boiling in anger, poised to open a valve that will erupt into a rebellious torrent of volcanic rage.

Can you still escape temptation when you’re in that deep?

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Three Things You Will Learn from Our New Book about Marijuana

Three Things You Will Learn from Our New Book about Marijuanaby Tom Breeden and Mark L. Ward Jr. /

Can I smoke pot? For most readers of our book, the title’s question can be answered with one word (read the book to find out what it is). But God in Scripture doesn’t shape us merely by giving us lists of things we must do and things we must not do—with an appendix tossed in for things we can do if we want. He trains our heads in what to think and our hearts in what (and whom) to love. He fills Scripture with reason, argument, story, poetry, and prophecy. He also uses real-life experience—“constant practice”—to increase our “powers of discernment” (Hebrews 5:14).

So a good, Christian, biblically careful discussion of marijuana requires more than a simple yes or no.

Here are three things you will learn; three things that Can I Smoke Pot? Marijuana in Light of Scripture can help teach you beyond simple answers:

1. Can I Smoke Pot? can model how to honor God in your choices.

Every human being has a decision to make regarding marijuana. Right now, Americans in particular are paying a lot of attention to this question. Even if many people haven’t yet given it any thought, they will very likely have to before too long. But for some people, particularly Christians, and particularly younger ones, the question is pressing hard right now: Can I smoke pot?

Christians must not make important decisions on simple impulse. God calls his people to make choices that honor him (1 Corinthians 10:31). This means that Christians should care what God has to say about marijuana. Can I Smoke Pot? provides a model for how to increase your powers of discernment.

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