Tony Reinke has written a book on John Newton and his view of the Christian life. So
far, I am...well amazed. He has pulled together Newton’s 40 years as a pastor and
letter writer and provides great insight into life in Christ.
Starting in the first chapter there is so much to soak in concerning
grace. To quote Reinke; “When Newton speaks of grace, he is speaking of Christ in
union with the believer. Newton’s grace is ever ‘my grace,’ a sovereign, all-
sufficient, alone-sufficient grace that flows freely and fully from the person of Jesus
Christ.”
Reinke then uses a part of Newton’s sermon on Matthew 11:27 to describe this
union:
“The great God is pleased to manifest himself in Christ, as the God of grace. This
grace is manifold, pardoning, converting, restoring, persevering grace, bestowed
upon the miserable and worthless. Grace finds the sinner in a hopeless, helpless
state, sitting in darkness, and in the shadow of death. Grace pardons the guilt,
cleanses the pollution, and subdues the power of sin. Grace sustains the bruised
reed, binds up the broken heart, and cherishes the smoking flax into a flame. Grace
restores the soul when wandering, revives it when fainting, heals it when wounded,
upholds it when ready to fall, teaches it to fight, goes before it in the battle, and at last
makes it more than conqueror over all opposition, and then bestows a crown of
everlasting life. But all this grace is established and displayed by the covenant in the
man Christ Jesus, and without respect to him as living, dying, rising, reigning, and
interceding in the behalf of sinners, would never have been known.”
So thankful for this book, the research and writing of Reinke, the ministry and
letters of Newton, but I am beyond thankful for Christ Jesus...
Grace and Peace!
Recently during a sermon our Pastor said something like ‘success is not always good
for you’. You really have to stop and think about that for a while. This gave me
pause and I have been dwelling on that for a bit. I was always one striving for my
next best whatever...car, job, victory and I think I can really relate to what he was
saying.
I was reading Tim Keller’s commentary on Judges and in it he says, “Success can
easily cause us to forget God’s grace, because our hearts are desperate to believe we
can save ourselves.” I find that to be so true and part of our culture.
The American
way is to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, to compete, to win at all costs. So to
me, it is very easy to think we have done it all ourselves, but when we really stop,
when we are really thinking clearly we know that we have in many cases
done it despite ourselves.
Now there is certainly nothing wrong with striving for more and better things, to be
good, even great at things, but it needs to be accompanied by perspective. It needs to be
grounded in a faith that everything under the sun is Gods; created, supplied,
granted, given by God. And as long as that is our perspective and we achieve with
thankful and humble hearts, then achieve away.
Keller concluded by saying, “We need to remember that we are saved by grace when
we fail. But we need to remember it much more when we succeed.
2 Chronicles 26:5
He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God.
As long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.
Father, thank you for saving us by your amazing grace; may we seek you all of our
days and may we see that as true success!
Grace and Peace!
