Just started John Mac Arthur's Our Sufficiency in Christ and already loving it! Here are some excerpts from the prelude:
I am concerned with the current erosion of confidence in the perfect sufficiency of our spiritual resources in Christ. As Christians, we find complete sufficiency in Christ and His provisions for our needs. There's no such thing as an incomplete or deficient Christian. Our Savior's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Human wisdom offers nothing to augment that. Every Christian receives all he or she needs at the moment of salvation. Each one must grow and mature, but no necessary resource is missing. There's no need to search for something more.
When Jesus completed His redemptive work on Calvary, He cried out triumphantly, "It is finished" (John 19:30). The saving work was fulfilled, completed. Nothing was omitted. And all who are recipients of that salvation are granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1:3). In Him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1Cor 1:30). His grace is sufficient for every situation (2 Cor. 12:9). We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Him (Eph. 1:3). By one offering He has perfected us forever (Heb 10:14). We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10). What can anyone add to that?
So to possess the Lord Jesus Christ is to have every spiritual resource. All strength, wisdom, comfort, joy, peace, meaning, value, purpose, hope, and fulfillment in life now and forever is bound up in Him. Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ.
The church is in dire need of a renewed appreciation of what it means to be complete in Christ. The failure of modern Christians to understand and appropriate the riches of Christ has opened the door to all kinds of aberrant influences. Bad doctrine, legalism, libertinism, humanism, and secularization - to name a few - are eroding the foundations of the Christian faith. Those satanic assaults are more subtle and therefore more dangerous than the liberalism that splintered the church at the start of this century - and they are succeeding with alarming effectiveness.
In the past two decades or so, for example, theology has become more and more humanistic. The focus has shifted from God to people and their problems, and counseling has replace worship and evangelism as the main program of many churches. Christians are becoming more and more dependent on therapists, support groups and similar groups.
This shift in the church's focus did not grow out of some new insight gained from Scripture. Rather, it has seeped into the church from the world. It is an attack at the most basic level, challenging Christians' confidence in the sufficiency of Christ.
Contemporary opinion is more utilitarian, valuing physical comfort more than spiritual well-being, self-esteem above Christ-likeness, and good feelings over holy living. Many churches have de-emphasized preaching and worship in favor of entertainment, apparently believing they must lure converts by appealing to fleshly interests. As if Christ Himself were in some way inadequate.
I am concerned with the current erosion of confidence in the perfect sufficiency of our spiritual resources in Christ. As Christians, we find complete sufficiency in Christ and His provisions for our needs. There's no such thing as an incomplete or deficient Christian. Our Savior's divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Human wisdom offers nothing to augment that. Every Christian receives all he or she needs at the moment of salvation. Each one must grow and mature, but no necessary resource is missing. There's no need to search for something more.
When Jesus completed His redemptive work on Calvary, He cried out triumphantly, "It is finished" (John 19:30). The saving work was fulfilled, completed. Nothing was omitted. And all who are recipients of that salvation are granted everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Christ (2 Peter 1:3). In Him we have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1Cor 1:30). His grace is sufficient for every situation (2 Cor. 12:9). We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Him (Eph. 1:3). By one offering He has perfected us forever (Heb 10:14). We are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10). What can anyone add to that?
So to possess the Lord Jesus Christ is to have every spiritual resource. All strength, wisdom, comfort, joy, peace, meaning, value, purpose, hope, and fulfillment in life now and forever is bound up in Him. Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ.
The church is in dire need of a renewed appreciation of what it means to be complete in Christ. The failure of modern Christians to understand and appropriate the riches of Christ has opened the door to all kinds of aberrant influences. Bad doctrine, legalism, libertinism, humanism, and secularization - to name a few - are eroding the foundations of the Christian faith. Those satanic assaults are more subtle and therefore more dangerous than the liberalism that splintered the church at the start of this century - and they are succeeding with alarming effectiveness.
In the past two decades or so, for example, theology has become more and more humanistic. The focus has shifted from God to people and their problems, and counseling has replace worship and evangelism as the main program of many churches. Christians are becoming more and more dependent on therapists, support groups and similar groups.
This shift in the church's focus did not grow out of some new insight gained from Scripture. Rather, it has seeped into the church from the world. It is an attack at the most basic level, challenging Christians' confidence in the sufficiency of Christ.
Contemporary opinion is more utilitarian, valuing physical comfort more than spiritual well-being, self-esteem above Christ-likeness, and good feelings over holy living. Many churches have de-emphasized preaching and worship in favor of entertainment, apparently believing they must lure converts by appealing to fleshly interests. As if Christ Himself were in some way inadequate.
"When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8
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