A Mere 10-Point-by-Point Sermon on the Simplicity of the Glad Tidings of Incarnate Jehovah

Before thee, God, who knowest all,
With grief and shame I prostrate fall.
I see my sins against thee, Lord,
The sins of thought, of deed, and word.
They press me sore: I cry to thee:
O God, be merciful to me!
O Lord, my God, to thee I pray:
O cast me not in wrath away!
Let thy good Spirit ne'er depart,
But let him draw to thee my heart
That truly penitent I be:
O God, be merciful to me!
O Jesus, let thy precious blood
Be to my soul a cleansing flood.
Turn not, O Lord, thy guest away,
But grant that justified I may
Go to my house at peace with thee:
O God, be merciful to me!  (TH, 409).

1.  The simplicity of the unified harmonious message of the written Scriptures is about Jesus Christ alone as the central and supreme theme of the Bible alone as the sole infallible Word.

2.  The simplicity of grace alone is not only the necessity of grace alone but the all-sufficiency of grace alone.  What is grace?  Grace is simply the unified divine righteousness of Jesus in His perfect life (that earned salvation for us) and His perfect death alone (that pardoned our sin).   

3.  What about the resurrection?  When we say the life and death of Christ alone is how someone is right with God by faith alone (a gift and work of the Spirit and the Word), we mean that it is solely because of the verification and confirmation of the sign of Jonah.  What is the sign of Jonah?  The sign of Jonah is the very bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior and Creator.  In the Bible's theology, we do not put the resurrection aside somehow, but the resurrection is the very reason why Jesus is demonstrated by an historical and supernatural sign to be the only way to be right with God with no additions of persons or works whatsoever.

3.  The simplicity of the means or instrument for how someone is right with God is through faith alone.  What is faith?  Faith is trusting and fixing our minds upon the Cross of Jesus Christ.  I suggest to you that there is no more purer or higher redemptive suffering but the all-exclusive suffering of Jesus (with no additions in anyway whatsoever because He alone is God the Son in human flesh) for spiritual pardon, forgiveness and cleansing through His divine grace to the glory of God the Father.

4.  The Cross is a picture of the holiness, righteousness and purity of the Lamb of God alone.  It is also a picture of the Father's wrath that is poured upon Jesus without limitation in behalf of God's people alone that He saves from every tribe, tongue, people and nation not of any human works but of God's choice according to His mercy alone.

5.  The simplicity for how someone is right with God is the accounted or imputed unified righteousness or merit of the person and work of Christ alone.  What is imputation?   It simply means God accounts the unified merit of Christ to your behalf without works but by a heaven-born faith in spiritual rebirth (apart from baptismal waters but the freedom of the Spirit in working with God's Word alone in the sinner's heart) and He covers you with the supernatural garments of His Son alone.   Is this legal declaration (that is a forensic pronouncement by the Father through His Son) a legal fiction?  It can only be a legal fiction if the life and death of Christ alone in how someone is right with God is not real.  Is the life and death of Christ alone real?  The life and death of Christ alone is real because we have the inspired, infallible and inerrant record of it in the plain testimony of the written Scriptures that cannot be disputed or compared with the wisdom of mere opinion.

6.   If God covers us with His spiritual garments of His Son alone through an accounted righteousness for how we are right with God (that is the nature of justification), should we have to add something to it?  If God declares (not makes) you RIGHTEOUS through His Son alone in justification by faith alone, there is nothing more to add to salvation, because His unified righteousness or merit is all-complete and the sole grounds for how we are right with a holy God with no additions.  Why are there no additions?  Think about it.  Someone with His imputed unified merit cannot get more right with a holy God than the divine covering of the spiritual garments of His only dear Son.  What could you possibly add to the all-complete divine righteousness of the only God-man?  There is nothing to add because He is enough for how someone is right with God.  We do not need to add anything because Christ is the very essence of sacredness in justification by faith alone through imputation (not infusion).  I suggest to you that "infusion" (man's cooperation with grace) is a man-made myth.  It has no place in the Bible's teaching about the nature of justification.

7.   Do we add faith to the unified merit of Christ alone?  No, no! Faith is a gift of the Spirit of God and the Word of God alone.  It is not through baptismal waters nor in a free will-submission of the sinful flesh toward faith nor a faith that earns pardon with God.  If faith is truly not of ourselves, it cannot be from the world, the flesh or anything else.  No church by nature has the spiritual strength to grant faith through baptism.  Faith to be faith is from the Spirit of God and the Word of God to open the heart and mind to respond based solely on God's freedom to save whomever He wills according to His good will in FREE grace through His Son alone (not a mixture of grace and works, because if its of grace it cannot be of works, and if its of works it cannot be of grace).

8.  Why do you suppose sinful man cannot have faith from within himself?  It is simply because man cannot in part or in whole save himself.  The nature of man is bound in original sin.  Sinful man is active in the sinfulness of sin and the deceitfulness of deceit that cannot wield true faith by nature.  This is how the Fall of Adam left mankind.  Adam's will was subject to change though he was sinless.  Man cannot have faith from himself, because He is spiritually dead in radical corruption.  Man cannot design a special program to save himself through what he considers "sacred."  Rather man is totally unable to lift himself to God in faith by nature.  That is, spiritually dead men need the spiritual work of God the Holy Spirit in accompanied work of the outstretched arm of Christ in His holy Word.  True faith is not of anything of this world.  Rather true faith is from God and His infallible Word that overcomes the darkness of the world.  The written Word is ultimately superintended by the Holy Ghost through His chosen vessels to write a holy record for our instruction and heavenly learning.


9.  Is the state of justification taught in the Bible unbreakable?  Yes!  Justification is unbreakable because it is the oath of God.  God cannot lie because it would go against His immutable nature.  That is, the state of justification is unbreakable because of the unbreakable Christ.   No degree of sin can break the state of justification, because the person and work of Christ goes undefeated.   It simply means in the outcome a spiritual motivation for forerodained holiness not a license to sin.  The God of the Bible never lost a war for His people.  No devil, wizard, bishop, archbishop, cardinal or anyone can undo the state justification once declared by God through His well-pleased Son.  That is, it is why we sing praise to Jesus.  It is because of His unified righteousness imputed to us by the Spirit-given gift of faith.  Justification is unbreakable because God cannot lie.  It does not depend upon the sinner's performance.   Rather Jesus already earned salvation for His people alone through a sinless life.  Sinners must trust in the person and work of Christ through the freedom of God in His outworking of His Spirit and the usage of His matchless Word.

10.  What happens after justification?  There is an unbreakable chain of God in the work of salvation.  It starts with spiritual rebirth (devoid of anything of this world even sinner-bound cooperation but by His Spirit and Word alone) to justification to past sanctification to progressive sanctification to past glorification to future glorification.  What is past sanctification?  It simply means we are already holy in a past tense.  What is progressive sanctification?  It simply means the process of the pursuit of holiness but we would say in its outcome its all of God's grace alone.  What is past glorification mean?   It simply means we are a child of God now because of the work of the Spirit.  What is future glorification?  It simply means we will be made sinless not because of any additions whatsoever.  Rather we will be made sinless because of the supernatural domination and proliferation of the unified merit of Jesus Christ alone.  In the end, Jesus Christ gets all the glory not anyone else to add to Christ alone.  I suggest to you that any system that denies the all-exclusive glory to Christ alone is a denial of the simplicity of the gospel.  Remember complex truth does not always mean that it is correct.  The clear testimony of Scripture is that sinners cannot save themselves in part or in whole.  Rather they need the exclusive and only righteousness from heaven!  That is, He is Jesus Christ, Son of God; where He is, I shall be also! AMEN.

 One day when heaven was filled with his praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin—
Dwelt amongst men, my example is he!
Living, he loved me; dying, he saved me;
Buried, he carried my sins far away;
Rising, he justified freely, for ever:
One day he's coming—O, glorious day!
One day they led him up Calvary's mountain,
One day they nailed him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected:
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is he!
One day they left him alone in the garden,
One day he rested, from suffering free;
Angels came down o'er his tomb to keep vigil;
Hope of the hopeless, my Saviour is he!
One day the grave could conceal him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then he arose, over death he had conquered;
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore!
One day the trumpet will sound for his coming,
One day the skies with his glories will shine;
Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing;
Glorious Saviour, this Jesus is mine!   (TH, 689).