Reformation Day ... oh yeah, it's also Halloween!

October 31, 1517 - The day observing Martin Luther nailing his 95 Thesis on the Whittenberg door. A declaration that salvation is found outside of man. Our only hope is an "alien righteousness" ... Salvation and the Christian life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. The key verse for Luther was Romans 1:17, which is an Old Testament quotation from Habakkuk 2:4... "... the Righteous (Just) shall live by faith..."  Luther said when he finally understood what this meant, it was ".. like the heavens opened up.."   .   The just SHALL live by faith. Faith is Christ alone.. It is the only way we'll see heaven. 

Justification by faith is an answer to the greatest personal question ever asked by a human soul: “How shall I be right with God? How do I stand in God’s sight? With what favor does He look upon me? There are those, I admit, who never raise that question.  There are those who are concerned with the question of their standing before men but never with the question of their standing before God. There are those who are interested in what “people say”  but not in the question what God says. Such men, however, are not those who move the world. They are apt to go with the current. They are apt to do as others do. They are not the heroes who change the destinies of the race. The beginning of true nobility comes when a man ceases to be interested in the judgment of men and becomes interested in the judgment of God.”
                                                                    J. Gresham Machen, 1881 - 1937

A Wonderful Puritan Prayer

Father of mercies,
Hear me for Jesus' sake.
I am sinful even in my closest walk with thee;
it is of thy mercy I died not long ago;
Thy grace has given me faith in the cross
by which thou hast reconciled thyself to me and me to thee,
drawing me by thy great love,
reckoning me as innocent in Christ though guilty in myself.
Giver of all graces,
I look to thee for strength to maintain them in me,
for it is hard to practice what I believe,
Strengthen me against temptations,
My heart is an unexhausted fountain of sin,
              a river of corruption since childhood days,
                flowing on in every pattern of behavior; 
Thou has disarmed me of the means in which I trusted,
   and I have no strength but in thee. 
Thou alone canst hold back my evil ways,
   but without thy grace to sustain me I fall.
Satan's darts quickly inflame me,
   and the shield that should quench them 
       easily drops from my hand;
Empower me against his wiles and assaults.
Keep me sensible of my weakness,
     and of my dependence upon thy strength. 
Let every trial teach me more of thy peace,
                                     more of thy love. 
Thy Holy Spirit is given to increase thy graces,
      and I cannot preserve or improve them
           unless he works continually in me. 
May he confirm my trust in thy promised help,
      and let me walk humbly in dependence upon thee,
             for Jesus' sake. 
* The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions
Edited by Arthur Bennett 

Grace and Peace

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  (Romans 1:7 ESV) 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 1:3 ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:2 ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, (Galatians 1:3 ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:2 ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:2 ESV)

To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
                                                                                                                               (Colossians 1:2 ESV)

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. (1 Thessalonians 1:1 ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:2 ESV)


To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (1 Timothy 1:2 ESV) 
To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (2 Timothy 1:2 ESV)

To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.  (Titus 1:4 ESV)


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philemon 1:3 ESV)

... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 
                                                                                                                                     (1 Peter 1:2)
 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
                                                                                                                                 (2 Peter 1:2 ESV) Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.  (2 John 1:3 ESV)  

In the New Testament we are told over and over again... "Grace" is the basis or our salvation, and "Peace" is the benefit...   REJOICE IN THIS TRUTH TODAY!! BECAUSE OF GOD'S GRACE WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD (Romans 5: 1) 
                                                                                 

Wonderful quote from Spurgeon

I will help you.”  Isaiah 41:10

“Let us hear the Lord Jesus speak to each one of us: ‘I will help you. It is but a small thing for me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have done already. What! not help you? Why, I bought you with my blood. What! not help you? I have died for you; and if I have done the greater, will I not do the less? Help you! It is the least thing I will ever do for you. I have done more, and will do more. Before the world began I chose you. I made the covenant for you. I laid aside my glory and became a man for you, I gave up my life for you; and if I did all this, I will surely help you now. In helping you, I am giving you what I have bought for you already. If you had need of a thousand times as much help, I would give it to you; you require little compared with what I am ready to give. ‘Tis much for you to need, but it is nothing for me to bestow. Help you? Fear not! If there were an ant at the door of your granary asking for help, it would not ruin you to give him a handful of your wheat; and you are nothing but a tiny insect at the door of my all-sufficiency. I will help you.’
O my soul, is not this enough? Do you need more strength than the omnipotence of the United Trinity? Do you want more wisdom than exists in the Father, more love than displays itself in the Son, or more power than is manifest in the influences of the Spirit? Bring here your empty pitcher! Surely this well will fill it. Haste, gather up your needs, and bring them here – your emptiness, your woes, your needs. Behold, this river of God is full for your supply; what can you desire beside? Go forth, my soul, in this your might. The Eternal God is your helper.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Style updated.

Romans

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,  which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,  concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh  and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
                                                                                           (Romans 1:1-7 ESV)
I getting ready to preach through Romans in September, so I've been reading this incredible piece of literature a great deal... The book of Romans is compelling.. refreshing .. convicting. I can see Paul deep in prayer and in thought as he writes this.. Probably in Corinth.. In a quite room.. He and the Lord. I pray that God will teach me and strengthen me as I study and teach it.. Even more I want Him to change me. Pray this happens. 
There are many ways to explain the purpose of Romans in a concise statement, but from what I've read so far, Christopher Ash has said it best: "The purpose of Romans is the glory of God seen in a united missionary church humbled together under grace."  Christopher Ash, Romans, Vol.One,  Proclamation Trust, Scotland, Great Britain, 2009 pg. 37

What is true of Christ is more important to me than what is true of me

“God has provided for your perfect deliverance from sin in Christ. Everything needed for this purpose was finished by him on the cross. He was your surety. He suffered for you. Your sins were crucified with him and nailed to his cross. They were put to death when he died, for he was your covenant-head, and you, as a member of his body, were legally represented by him and are indeed dead to sin by his dying to sin once.
The law has now no more right to condemn you, a believer, than it has to condemn him. Justice is bound to deal with you as it has with your risen and ascended Savior.”
William Romaine, The Life, Walk and Triumph of Faith (Cambridge, 1970), page 280.