A Salvation That Really Saves

by Mike Ratliff

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV)

In yesterday’s post, Grace of Acceptation With God, we saw that our salvation was far more than simply justification by faith, which in and of itself is incredible, but also includes the imputation of the actual active righteousness of Christ, His good works or keeping of the Law, which is required for our complete acceptation by God into His Kingdom. I know that many reading this may not see the point of this or have no idea what I am talking about. However, please understand, I am praying that you will understand the truth of this because this is a huge missing piece from the gospel in the church in our time. Without this teaching, the church is plagued with professing Christians who are in a form of self-salvation. They did the religious thing “to get saved” at church. They were sincere, but there is no real change in their lives. However, the Bible is very clear as in the passage above that we are saved “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Therefore, there is a huge problem with a lack of assurance in these people. The issue is not their lack of sincerity or their lack of obedience since their religious experience, but that they have believed a false, man-made gospel that has no spiritual power to really save or regenerate anyone. 

Grace of Acceptation With God

by Mike Ratliff

[16] And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, (John 14:16 ESV)

As we look about us with any discernment at all in these times of spiritual deceit, it can be heart rending to see the outright lying done in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are so-called men of God preaching and teaching and ministering and doing things that could best be described as either the teaching or application of damnable heresies. I know that there are some who call themselves Christians who automatically have a problem with that last statement because they are afflicted with the disease of post-modernistic thinking. They believe everything is relative. Sorry, to the wind with that. If you are uncomfortable with the proclamation of God’s truth as absolute then you will not be comfortable here. God’s Word is His truth, a precious gift to His Church. In it we learn theology and His doctrines. This includes the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. From that we learn that our salvation is entirely by God’s grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8,9). We are justified by faith, not works. God’s truth is objective and absolute not subjective and relative. The grace we possess as Christians was purchased for us at the Cross of Christ. 

There is Death in the Pot!

by Mike Ratliff

And Elisha came again to Gilgal when there was a famine in the land. And as the sons of the prophets were sitting before him, he said to his servant, “Set on the large pot, and boil stew for the sons of the prophets.” One of them went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine and gathered from it his lap full of wild gourds, and came and cut them up into the pot of stew, not knowing what they were. And they poured out some for the men to eat. But while they were eating of the stew, they cried out, “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” And they could not eat it. He said, “Then bring flour.” And he threw it into the pot and said, “Pour some out for the men, that they may eat.” And there was no harm in the pot. (2 Kings 4:38-41 ESV)

In a private discussion with friends over the last few days the question has been raised about three primary examples of well-known reformed theologians or pastors who if we looked closely at their theology of salvation and the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ we would say that these are our brothers. However, there is a problem. These same three men are involved in things that many of us consider extra-biblical and outside of the true mission God has given the Church. John Piper is a good theologian, but he is also closely associated with Mark Driscoll who is both emergent and the leader of the Acts 29 Network. He has also invited Rick Warren to speak at his conference this Fall. Mark Driscoll is reformed in his theology as well. He has made statements that he has turned away from his emergent roots, but the Acts 29 Network claims to be the source of “new Calvinism” which is missional and lines up nicely with the emergent goals. Lastly, we have Matt Chandler. His theology is right on, but he is also pursuing some things in his ministry that are troubling because they are highly subjective in their foundation. 

Acts 29 Network and Subjective Religiosity

by Mike Ratliff

I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. (Romans 16:17-18 ESV)

Our brother in the Lord Ken Silva wrote a very good article this afternoon revealing the rotten spiritual foundation of the Acts 29 Network and its embracing of Contemplative Spirituality. I pray that you follow that link and read it. There was part of that article that really got my attention from a different direction however. Here is the list of the four ways ‘New Calvinism’ is So Powerful and, hence, is becoming such a force in our time. 

The Deification of Man

by Mike Ratliff

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7 ESV)

As many of you know, I was given the opportunity to do a pre-release review of a book written by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola titled Jesus Manifesto. To be honest, I was shocked after I received it and began reading it. I knew, for instance, that Sweet was a good friend of Brian McLaren and was emergent in his theology. However, the book started out well. It was like reading a sermon preached by a very good evangelist. My good friend Jon Cardwell was also enlisted to review the book and was going through the same struggle. It was amazing. However, I was also asking for a lot of prayer for wisdom and discernment from friends and family as I dug into the book. It did not help though that this was going on as I was also dealing with a great deal of mental exhaustion. In any case, my prayers were answered when I came to the part of the book dealing with our Lord’s crucifixion. 

Are You Ashamed of That Stumbling Block?

by Mike Ratliff

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16 ESV)

Currently, the Truth is under serious assault by the enemies of anyone and anything that has any claim of it holding the quality of being absolute. That means that those cars we see all over our metro areas with those cute little bumper stickers made up of religious symbols that spell out the word “COEXIST” as seen in the image below are attempts to say that there is no such thing as absolute truth. They are saying that whatever is true for one person is okay as long as that person respects what is true for another person even if these “truths” are completely contradictory. The absurdity of this is apparent to anyone with any ability to reason, but as we have seen, post-modern thinkers do not think logically.

Counting All as Loss Because of the Surpassing Worth Of Knowing Christ Jesus as Lord

by Mike Ratliff

8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8 ESV)

The title for this piece was a bit hard to come up with. I know what I wanted to say, but not how to say it succinctly. The more I thought about that though, the more I realized that that exercise in and of itself was futile since it was rooted in wrong motives. On my time off, God enabled me to have some quality time with some very good teachers of His Word and Doctrine. One of these sources was a book by John Owen, Communion With The Triune God. Owen was a Puritan from the 1600’s. Another source was the discussion group at the White Horse Inn: Dr. Michael Horton, Dr. Rod Rosenbladt, Ken Jones, and Dr. Kim Riddlebarger, as they discussed theology from the framework of “Knowing what Christians believe and why they believe it.” It is amazing how the simplicity of that is lost in the jumble of apostasy all around us. The other source was listening to Dr. James White explain the gospel to skeptics in his role as a Christian apologist. These widely varying sources fed this tired Christian immensely.