The Gospel for those Broken by the Church

There are some messages that are memorable in its impact on me in a very special way,  "The Gospel for those Broken by the Church" by Rod Rosenblat is one of them. We can all relate to the often subtle and even blatant moralism and impossible expectation of the church on our Christian lives and the guilt of our failure as Christians. Dr. Rosenblatt addresses this head on. If you have the time I can promise you, you will be encouraged, built up and have a deeper understanding of the hope you have in our Saviors Death on the Cross.


Dr. Rod Rosenbladt on "The Gospel For Those Broken By The Church" from Faith Lutheran Church on Vimeo.

The Discipline of Grace

"The Gospel is not the most important message in all of history, it is the only essential message in all of history."
Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." "What does it mean to believe in Jesus, that is what is it we are to believe? We are to believe that as the son of God, clothed in our humanity, He lived a perfect life and then died on the cross for our sins. This message is called the Gospel, that is the good news about Jesus....all who put their trust in Jesus are justified freely by Gods grace."

"We are counted in Gods sight as perfectly obeying the law of God...we must keep in mind that our justification by God is based solely on the meritorious work of Christ and our union with Him. That is, God see us legally as so connected with Christ that what He did, we did. When he lived a life of perfect obedience, it is as if we lived a life of perfect obedience. When He died on the cross to satisfy the just demands of God's law, it is just as if we had died on that cross... these are objective truths; that is, they are true whether we grasp them or not. So often, however, we find it difficult to believe them. Because of our frequent failures before God, we do feel under condemnation, we do not feel God is for us but really surly must be against us, we do think He is bringing charges against us. At such times we must preach the Gospel to ourselves. We must review what God has declared to be true about our justification in Christ."

"To live by the Gospel we must firmly grasp the fact that Christ's life and death are ours by virtue of our union with Him."

Quotes from Jerry Bridges's book "Discipline of Grace"

The Discipline of Grace, Updated Edition I intentionally keep the focus of this site on the Gospel- the good news that Jesus died for our sins; for one reason it continues to astound me, that He would choose me to be one of His adopted children in light of my continued failures in His sight, but also, the key to renewing and reforming our minds is the power of repetition, as Martin Luther said,"We must continually pound the Gospel into our heads." This book will do that and do it well!

All of Christ and His Blood Alone

Whats the difference?

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between Martin Luther, John Calvin, Wesley and Catholicism-the Catholic Church? Maybe you haven't but the fact is modern Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, Pentecostals, Charismatics and much of even society mainly European and American are influenced by the historic theology, doctrines and teachings of these. We pride ourselves, as Christians, on the idea that we base our Christian experience on the scripture alone but we are instinctively at a subconscious level, both religiously and socially a product of these doctrines teachings and influences. Listen to this teaching by Rod Rosenbladt as he dissects these doctrines and their influences on our thinking Click >>> Law and Gospel
I've been informed that this message can not be accessed but you can down load an mp3 of it for a nominal fee. I DO NOT PROFIT FROM THIS PURCHASE. To purchace it go to http://www.newreformationpress.com/ it and any of these messages would be worth the few bucks!

Paralyzed By Your Past?

How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our character can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.
A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge Of The Holy

This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort-the sort of comfort that energizes be it said, not enervates-in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me...."
J.I. Packer, Knowing God

Is God punishing You?

Rod Rosenbladt on Being Saved

"..It takes more than belief it takes more than faith to really please God, He says it takes faith that results in loving others, religion without love doesn't matter its not enough to say I believe, what matters is how I love other people that's the great commandment.." Rick Warren

Sounds right who could argue with this right! I really like Rick Warren but I also really struggle with these kinds of statements, listen to Rod Rosenbladt clearly address this kind of thinking. Click Here Then Click Video

U2's Magnificent, Boston 9/20/09

U2, No Line On The Horizon
"The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled… It’s not our own good works that get us through the gates of Heaven...I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity." Bono, Christianity Today

"The secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: He was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says, No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: 'I'm the Messiah.' I'm saying: 'I am God incarnate.' . . . So what you're left with is either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. . . . The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me that's farfetched." Bono, World Magazine

"Bono, The Edge and Larry are all strong believers in Christian faith and at one stage were going to quit U2 because of the relationship between Christian faith and rock and roll, but then decided that the band wouldn’t get in the way of their personal beliefs." Musicouch.com

"..three of the four band members were part of a Charismatic Christian community in Ireland as the group was starting out." Publishers Weekly

Draw your own conclusions.

U2, No Line On The Horizon

Magnificent
Oh, oh, magnificent

I was born, I was born
To be with you in this space and time
After that and ever after
I haven't had a clue only to break rhyme
This foolishness can leave a heart black and blue, oh, oh

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar

I was born, I was born to sing for you
I didn't have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice from the womb
My first cry, it was a joyful noise, oh, oh

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love can heal such a scar
Justified, till we die you and I will magnify, oh, oh
Magnificent, magnificent, oh, oh

Only love, only love can leave such a mark
But only love, only love unites our hearts
Justified, till we die you and I will magnify, oh, oh
Magnificent, magnificent, magnificent

U2, No Line On The Horizon

A View of The Law & Justification

"When God gives orders and tells us what will happen if we fail to obey those orders perfectly, it is in the category of what the reformers, following the biblical text, called "law." When God promises freely, providing for us because of Christ's righteousness the status he demands of us, this is in the category of "gospel." It is good news from start to finish. The Bible includes both, and the reformers were agreed that the scriptures clearly taught (contrary to many forms of dispensationalism) that the Law (whether Old or New Testament commands) was not set aside for the believer. Nevertheless, they insisted that nothing in this category of "Law" could be a means of justification or acceptance before a holy God.

The Law comes, not to reform the sinner, nor to show him or her the "narrow way" to life, but to crush the sinner's hopes of escaping God's wrath through self-effort or even cooperation. All of our righteousness must come from someone else--someone who fulfilled the Law's demands. Once we have been stripped of our "filthy rags" of righteousness (Is.64:6), our "fig leaves" through which we try in vain to hide our guilt and shame, only then can we be clothed with Christ's righteousness. First comes the Law to proclaim judgment and death, then the Gospel to proclaim justification and life. One of the clearest presentations of this motif is found in Paul's Epistle to the Galatians." Dr. Rod Rosenbladt, For more on the Doctrine of Justification Click HERE

Propitiation

"Propitiation in the context of salvation means that which appeases the wrath of God against sin. So the Lord Jesus Christ by His sacrifice on the cross appeases and turned aside God's holy and just wrath, the wrath that we should have bore." Bridges
What does this mean in application to us is that if Gods wrath for our sin was exhausted on Jesus at the cross , then there is none left toward you, Ro. 8:1 There is therefore no condemnation.
In Topladys hymn, From Whence the Fear and Unbelief, he writes, "Payment God CANNOT twice demand, First at my surety's hand and then again at mine. This is the good news It really does not matter how you "feel" at any given moment the reality is you no longer EVER have to fear Gods wrath on your life it's not necessarily how we view the death of Jesus on the Cross it's how God views it.

"It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance, it is not even the passing of a certain number of hours during which we feel we are on some kind of probation that cleanses us. It is the blood of Christ, shed once for all on Calvary two thousand years ago but appropriated daily or even many times a day, that cleanses our consciences and gives us a new sense of peace with God." Bridges
It is arrogance or ignorance that we think that we can go before God pointing to some good work or meritorious work that we have preformed, good works are right but those works do not contribute in anyway towards your standing with God, the only work that God recognises is Christs work and death.

"This standing in Christ's righteousness is never affected to any degree by our good day bad day performance" Bridges
Gods anger and wrath toward sin was "Propitiated" spent on, exhausted on Jesus at the Cross so that for all those who have trusted in Christ as their only hope of salvation never have to fear Gods wrath again in their lives, His discipline YES but never His wrath. Our standing with God is secure, often tough to belive but true.

Quotes are from Jerry Bridges book, "Discipline of Grace"