Spurgeon is the Man

Mark Driscoll is doing a series of blog posts on Charles Spurgeon in the unofficial Spurgeon is the Man week. Worth a read!

So far:
#1 Introduction
#2 Spurgeon was a Bible guy
#3 Spurgeon Prayed, Laughed, Cared, and Evangelized

Graduated by Works, Saved by Grace

I graduated last Thursday! It was a great day and I really enjoyed myself. I don't think I have ever been so proud as when my name was eventually called out and I walked up the steps, shook hands with a senior university man (no idea who he was, but he must have been important!) and claimed my degree certificate. All the work I had put in over the past three years had come to this point, and I was finally getting my reward!

The whole ceremony reminded me of Paul's final message to Timothy from 2 Timothy 4. For pretty much the whole book, Paul has been instructing Timothy as to how he should fulfil his duties as a minister and now Paul tells Timothy that the time of his death has come:

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Paul will soon die, but he will be awarded the crown of righteousness from the Lord, the righteous judge. He's being poured out as an offering, he's fought the good fight, he's finished the race, he's kept the faith. But he doesn't claim his reward in the same way that I claimed my degree certificate.

The passage says that the Lord is a righteous judge but it says that He gives the crown of righteousness to Paul, who is unrighteous (c.f. Acts 8:1-3) That really makes no sense at all! A righteous judge cannot say that someone unrighteous is righteous - it's logically impossible. And it's not just Paul that is unrighteous - the Bible says we have all done bad things, whether or not its persecuting the church or just plain ignoring God.

But this is where the wonderful news of the Christian gospel comes in. God makes the unrighteous righteous by taking their punishment onto himself at the cross and crediting Jesus' righteousness to them. So we have our punishment deserved for being unrighteous being dealt with and we're given Jesus' righteousness. It's absolutely amazing. This same crown will also be awarded to everyone who loves Christ!

So I compared being awarded my degree to being awarded the crown of righteousness. But in reality, they're not even remotely similar. I had to work for my degree certificate and it was a direct reflection of how well I did. But my crown of righteousness will be given to me from God as a gift and it has no bearing whatsoever on how well I do or how many times I screw up.

What an amazing thought. God gives crowns of righteousness to those that don't deserve them. Why? It's all down to God and his love for us. 1 John 4:10 says: "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Wow.

So I've officially finished uni and now I can't wait until September when Relay starts. Then I get to get stuck into studying the Bible and being discipled and being continually amazed at what God has done for us! :)

Signs That You're Saved

I'm currently working my way through Colossians in preparation for Relay 1 in August - I reckon you could probably find a good few of us future Relay workers by looking to see who else is writing blog posts on Colossians :P

Ever wondered if you're saved? Maybe you've accepted Jesus and put your trust in him, but you're just waiting for that magical feeling that you've been accepted by him.Paul gives thanks in Colossians 1:3-5 for three characteristics he's heard of in the Colossian Christians. The three characteristics he refers to are faith in Christ, love for all the saints and hope in heaven. It's a pretty good checklist of things to look for to see if you're saved!

Faith in Christ

This is the consequence of the work of the Holy Spirit in someone, not the cause of it. How often do we think that our faith is something that we do? That's completely wrong - before, we were completely dead and blind; now, we have been given faith as a gift from God- our eyes have been opened and we have been shown that the Gospel is the truth. Thus if we have faith, it has been given to us by God and it is evidence that we are saved.

Love for all the Saints (other Christians)

Love can be an easy thing to do if you like the other person. If they're attractive, pleasant or fun to be around, it's easy. Try loving someone that is the opposite of that - someone who's different to you or who's hard to get on with - is hard. However, that is the essence of Christian love. It's a love that can only come from God. This love is what binds people who are so incredibly different into a unique fellowship called the church.

Hope in Heaven

This is the confidence that we as Christians have that whatever happens here on Earth, whether it's persecution, suffering or comfortable living, there are infinitely better things stored up in heaven. It's the hope that enables us to persevere and endure hard times or the hope that helps us from getting too materialistic and focussing too much on the here and now. Again this hope can only come from God, if you've got it you're saved!So, if you can see these things in your life, you're definitely saved and if you can see these things in your friends, they're definitely saved!

Note: updated 23/7/08 due to David pointing out my grammatical errors :/