Monday, February 13, 2012
The Doctrines of Grace in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
The collect for the second Sunday before Lent should be noted carefully. (See Wikipedia: Collect). The emphasis is not on what we do but on God's mercy. The Lordship salvation crowd, like the Arminians, love to focus on what we do and on our good works rather than on Christ and what He did for us on the cross. The collect says:
LORD God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do; Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Most people literally cannot appreciate anything that is absolutely free. The principle applies to giving children a gift rather than having them earn the money to buy what they want. For example, if a parent buys a new car for a teenage son, he will not take as much care of the car than if the son had worked a part time job to pay for the car himself. Most people cannot understand that a free gift is not necessarily "cheap grace". It may have cost the parent a significant amount of money to purchase the new car for the son. The same principle applies to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for the sins of all the elect in the whole world and since the foundation of the world to the end of the world. He shed His precious blood to redeem the elect from all their sins of the past, the present and the future. (1 Peter 1:18, 19, 20; Ephesians 1:3-11). Therefore, the idea that salvation is a free gift apart from our obedience, merits, good works, or progression in sanctification or consecration to God is not cheap grace. It cost our Savior everything. (Galatians 6:14, 15, 16).
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