Only Ground for Acceptance

Tullian Tchividjian post:  The Present Power Of Christ’s Justifying Work

Yesterday afternoon my family and I returned from vacation. We had a wonderfully refreshing summer. We spent time on the southwest coast of Florida relaxing, reading a ton, and enjoying some much needed and undistracted time together. Then Kim, Genna, and I went to North Carolina to spend some time with my granddad (he’s doing really well, by the way!) while Gabe and Nate were (actually, still are) in Nicaragua on a mission trip with our church. I’m so grateful to God for my family. They are a gift far greater than I deserve.

I’m also grateful for those who filled in for me on this blog while I was away in July. I’m a blessed man to have so many gospel-soaked friends. I hope you were as edified by their posts as I was.

I figured I would ease my way back into blogging by posting a quote from Richard Lovelace that I heard a while ago and couldn’t find until today (thanks to Tom Wood for sending it to me). Lovelace puts his finger on the same problem that I continue to address on this blog and elsewhere: failing to realize the present power of Christ’s justifying work on our behalf. This quote is worth reading over and over again:

Only a fraction of the present body of professing Christians are solidly appropriating the justifying work of Christ in their lives. Many have so light an apprehension of God’s holiness and of the extent and guilt of their sin, that consciously they see little need for justification. Below the surface, however, they are deeply guilt-ridden and insecure. Many others have a theoretical commitment to this doctrine, but in their day-to-day existence they rely on their sanctification for justification….drawing their assurance of acceptance with God from their sincerity…their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience. Few start each day with a thoroughgoing stand upon Luther’s platform: you are accepted, looking outward in faith and claiming the wholly alien righteousness of Christ as the only ground for acceptance, relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.