Love, Grace, Mercy

Love, grace, mercy - Here are three words we can use to describe God. Grace and mercy are two sides of love. In mercy, God withholds from us the judgment we deserve. In grace, he pours upon us the blessings we don't deserve. Mercy  - the God of mercy, the mercy of God  "Lord, have …

God’s Grace And Our Faith

The relationship between grace and faith is neither (a) co-operative nor (b) coercive. (a) We do not contribute to our own salvation. It is always, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy Cross I cling." We do not come to the Lord with our religion in one hand and our morality in the …

A Human Problem That Needs, And Has, A Divine Solution

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure" (Jeremiah 17:9). What did Jeremiah mean when he said this? The words of the Rev Eric Alexander sum up Jeremiah's point very well: "The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart." When we read Jeremiah's words on their own, we …

When we are honest about ourselves

If we to think big thoughts about the love of God for us, we must learn to be honest about ourselves. When we are honest about ourselves, we will learn to appreciate how wonderful the Lord's love really is. In Ephesians 2:1, Paul gives us a devastating description of ourselves - "As for you, you …

Wonderful Grace Of Jesus

We are, because of our sin, under the judgment of God. Christ has taken our judgment that we might receive His salvation. In the Lord’s Supper, we have a great reminder of this. Christ drank from the cup of our condemnation that we might drink from the cup of His salvation. This is amazing grace, …

Before We Ever Think Of Giving Ourselves To God, We Must Look At All He Has Given To Us.

2 Corinthians 7:2-8:7 We may face difficult circumstances. We may experience much suffering. In all of this there is one thing we must never forget: ‘God… comforts the downcast’(7:6). He lifts us up when we are down. He enables us to ‘excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, in …

‘Justification By Faith’ Or ‘Justification By Grace Through Faith’?

Using the phrase, "justification by faith" can be misleading. It tends to suggest that it's our faith that saves us. It gives the impression that our faith is more important than it really is. It could lead us to think more highly of ourselves than we should. We should really speak about "justification by grace …

“The Heart of the Church”

In his book, A Half Century of Theology, G C Berkouwer has a chapter on "The Heart of the Church" (Chapter 4). In this chapter, he is concerned to emphasize the importance of the doctrine of election: "If we take seriously the conviction that election lies at the cor ecclesiae, at the heart of the …

The grace of God

As Berkouwer's thought moved from abstract concept towards the person and work of Christ in whom the grace of God is clearly revealed, he found that he was not denying the free sovereignty of God but rather recognizing its character as the free sovereignty of grace (A Half Century of Theology, p. 102). He described …

Berkouwer’s theology of the relationship between grace and faith

The more I thought of my own work on Berkouwer, the more I came to feel that the key Biblical text is Ephesians 2:8 - "By grace you have been saved through faith". The emphasis is on the absolute necessity of both grace and faith. It is not 'by grace you have been saved without …