Cap-Quotes: The Race to Be Run

Cap-Quotes: The Race to Be Run

A few more quotes from my reading through Thomas Schreiner’s book, The Race Set Before Us. …we have affirmed that although eternal life is God’s prize of salvation that we  pursue with eager hope, eternal life is also the gift of grace that already invigorates us with resurrection life so that we run the race with perseverance. Eternal life is the reward that we trust God will give to us who faithfully endure to the end of the race. Yet eternal life is also the very breath of heaven that already fills our hearts by God’s Spirit and enlivens our “feeble arms and weak knees” (Heb 12:12) to “run the race set before us” (Heb 12:1). 88   We must exercise faith in Jesus Christ in order to receive the prize of eternal life….We make this crucial distinction between the objective basis and the subjective means of salvation to make it clear from the outset that what believers do in order to attain the prize of eternal life does not add to or nullify God’s grace in the saving work of Jesus Christ. The reward we receive by faith in Christ is based on grace alone; it is not grounded on our achievement. Only  those who exercise faith in the one true God will receive this reward. 89   If we conceive of Christian faith as only a passive resting on God, we have an inadequate concept….God does not commend a person for a singular act of faith that fails to endure. God does not reward faith that does not go the distance. 95   Faithfulness is the proof of faith….All...
Cap-Quotes: The Prize to Be Won

Cap-Quotes: The Prize to Be Won

Here are a few more quotes from Tom Schreiner’s book, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance. I really recommend this book as a helpful tool in understanding the purpose and use of the warnings of the New Testament and how they related to perseverance and eternal security. The Christian life is like a race, and we run to win a prize. Winning this race is the most important matter in our lives. If we lose this race, everything else we achieve in life is meaningless. 46   Two truths stand out in Paul’s assessment of his life. First, he was confident that he had lived in a way that pleased God….Second, the reason for Paul’s assurance was his perseverance in running the race. He had not quit halfway into the race; he had not abandoned the faith. 47   Both the present and future dimensions of salvation should be viewed as two aspects of an indivisible whole….Salvation is not merely a past reality; it is also our future destiny. 47   We are already saved, yet our salvation has not yet been completed or consummated. We must uphold the tension in the New Testament between the already and not yet when we think of salvation in the New Testament. Believers today are prone to oversimplify the biblical teaching and to think of salvation simply in terms of the present. When this happens, a crucial element of biblical teaching is surrendered… 52   If we wish to represent the New Testament correctly, we cannot say that eternal life is exclusively a present or a future...
Cap-Quotes: The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance

Cap-Quotes: The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance

A friend and I have recently been reading through Thomas Schreiner, and Ardel Caneday’s book, The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance. I have to say that this has been an enriching study that has challenged, deepened and, I pray, helpfully shaped my understanding and application of how the Bible uses warnings to encourage faithfulness to Christ. Over the next few weeks I’ll post some helpful quotes from this book. I highly recommend a carefully reading of it. Our central concern is to show how the Bible places side-by-side both God’s promises of complete and final salvation for all his people and God’s admonitions or warnings that call on his people to persevere to the end in order to be saved 21. Four Popular Views on Warnings and Assurance: 1. Loss-of-Salvation View. Though many Christians believe that the Bible addresses warnings and admonitions to believers, some insist that these warnings and admonitions indicate that believers can and sometimes do abandon their faith and consequently lose their salvation. According to the loss-of-salvation view, the Bible’s warnings and admonitions make it clear that heirs of God’s promise can, by forsaking Christ, fail to persevere in faithfulness and long-suffering, and thus lose the inheritance of salvation. I. Howard Marshall and Scot McKnight advocate this view 21-22.   2. Loss-of-Rewards View. This view advocates that the biblical admonitions and warnings threaten believers with a possible loss. However, the loss a Christian may encounter concerns “rewards” only, not salvation or eternal life, which comes to us only by faith in Jesus Christ 24. Zane Hodges and Charles Ryrie advocate this...
How Do We Daily Apply the Gospel?

How Do We Daily Apply the Gospel?

How can we apply the gospel daily? What is the Gospel? Before practically answering that question, let’s quickly remind ourselves of what the gospel actually is. God The God who created all things is the standard of all that is right and wrong, and his standard is perfection – his standard is the reflection of his own character (Genesis 1:1; 1 John 1:5; Matthew 5:48; Isaiah 6:1-7). Mankind Mankind has violated that standard and continues to rebel against their creator and reject his standard, setting up for ourselves a new standard that tends to reflect the transitory whims of our own marred character. Man’s nature is one that rebels against God, does not seek God, does not desire God, thinks more highly of himself than of his creator, and is under the control of a humanness that follows the call of a God-hating system ruled by a demonically inspired leader, the devil himself. Thus, a perfect God who lovingly created all things for man to enjoy has been offended by the very crown of his creation in that they would rather serve themselves in a way that exalts sin and Satan more than God and his glory (Romans 3:10-18; Ephesians 2:1-3). Christ But the love of God and his wisdom have not only matched, but have overcome the depths of man’s depraved nature and choices. God has demonstrated the depths of his love in that he designed a way that would satisfy His perfect standard (the expression of His own character), accomplish justice for the injustice man has done against his holy standard, and apply the only sort of...