David Westerfield

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 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 3:3-7

No believer wants to take credit for their salvation. Every true believer will admit that they cannot take credit for God delivering them from His wrath, otherwise this would be prideful. And so the verses above expound upon that idea, unpacking the testimony of each one of us. But what are the theological ramifications for you not taking credit for your salvation?

Prior to our conversion as believers, each one of us went his own way in sin, running from God, rebellious, disobedient to His commandments, enemies of God, hated by others and hating one another. To qualify it again, there was nothing in us that wanted God or desired anything godly. It was all utter foolishness to us. But! When Christ appeared, He Saved us; when dying on the cross for His people (securing everything pertaining to their salvation), he did not choose to save us according to any foreseen works or faith that we would perform where everything becomes fragile and contingent on what we do, but He saved us according to His own mercy alone. I say again, God chose to save us based solely upon His mercy alone! What does this look like?

At the moment we believed, we were saved by grace (justified before the Father), through faith, that the Holy Spirit Himself supplied us with. Faith was God’s gift to His people that He chose to save. It is not earned, but faith itself depends on the granting of God’s mercy upon rotten, fallen sinners who do not deserve it. That is why we cannot take credit for our salvation. He saved us by the regeneration and renewal of our souls, hearts, and minds by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit was poured out on us richly through the work of Jesus Christ upon the cross. The faith of every believer is the result of God’s grace alone, and thus no believer can take credit for their salvation. We are not saved by Grace + Faith, but rather saved by Grace through Faith, a work of God itself. Faith is God’s means to bring those of us He has chosen to Himself. God does not believe for any of us, but supplies us with what is necessary to believe in Him, a regenerated heart, mind and soul that desire Christ and are “zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:14)

We cannot even boast in the fact that we’re chosen though, because there was nothing in us that made God look at us and save us. If any believer boasts in the fact that they were chosen of God, they have not understood grace. It is a gift of God’s grace alone that any of us have believed in Him. God’s election to save us secures God’s glory at every level of salvation (excludes boasting on our part at every level), including the time when we exert our regenerated will and believe in Christ. What God commands of us (faith in Christ unto salvation), He gives us by His Holy Spirit in the regeneration of our souls to be able to see clearly the irresistable beauty of Christ, and thus we cannot help but believe.

We can in no way take credit for our salvation at any level, even at the point at which we believed. And the ramifications of that scripturally is that we were chosen of God to inherit salvation, not because of any foreseen works or faith (not because of any human willing or exertion, Romans 9:16), but because of His choice made before the foundation of the world, to which we humbly fall at the feet of the Savior with tears, in gratitude for what an amazing act He has performed in our lives to save us! From this, grace takes on a whole new meaning and unfolds in layer upon infinite layer of divine, undeserved, eternal love, that go on forever into the depths of God’s counsel! This indeed is my testimony. Saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. I wanted nothing to do with Christ, was running away from Him, and He chose to come and turn my heart to believe in Him, not based on my doing, and not based on Him seeing me believe or perform any good works in the future, but based on His mercy alone that I did not deserve or earn. What an awesome, all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, all-wise Savior!

To quote Spurgeon concerning grace:

“When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul—when they were, as John Bunyan says, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man—that I had made progress in Scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord? The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have sought Him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek Him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures? I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that He was the Author of my faith, and so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, ‘I ascribe my change wholly to God.'”

Understanding man’s true state in sin is the first essential piece of information needed to understand the rest of the Gospel. You cannot appreciate the depths of the grace and mercy of God in Christ until you compare yourself to God’s greatness. Once you realize you have nothing, are nothing, can do nothing right before God because of your wicked heart, at that point after having your eyes opened and ears unplugged by the Holy Spirit, can you see and hear the greatness and sufficiency of Christ. John Calvin said, “Man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God’s majesty,” and also, “True knowledge of ourselves destroys self confidence.” We are not to be confident in ourselves, but confident in God and who He is. One failure in this doctrine will result in a series of cataclysmic doctrinal dominoes that inevitably lead to a squelching of the Gospel itself, which ultimately leads to a squelching and suppression of God’s glory and truth. If we believe we are less than at odds with God in our natural selves, or that sin has not affected every aspect of our lives, including our willing and choosing, we will not understand or appreciate God’s grace, mercy, holiness, perfection, the cross, the atonement, election, and so many other points as we should. We must first realize that before God, we are nothing, we are sinners, worthy of eternal hell-fire. We deserve nothing less than this. What a merciful God to provide salvation for anyone at all!

What The Term “Total Depravity” Is Not Saying:

1) That we are all as bad as we could be, or that we are utterly depraved.

2) This phrase is not a way of trying to intensify the argument that we’re all “SINNERS” by attempting to argue using an emotional appeal. Total Depravity is an extensive argument, meaning sin has affected every area and facet of our lives, spiritually, physically, emotionally, psychologically, in ever way.

I would like to make it known also that we are not morally comparing ourselves to other people in the world. We are not comparing ourselves to society, pedophiles, Hitler, philanthropists, or anyone else; other people are not the metric. The metric we compare ourselves against is the infinite holines and majesty of God alone. As Isaiah said when comparing himself before God’s majesty in Isaiah 6:5, “‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!'”

What it is saying:

1) That in our natural selves, being born into sin, we are corrupted in our understanding, thinking, willing, affections, desires, emotions, speech, acting, in every possible way, we are sinners. Nothing in our nature has escaped the grasp of sin. As I like to say, we are “thoroughly depraved”. There is no area of our lives that is outside of the bondage of sin. (It must be noted that it is from this point where we say “faith is not produced by our unregenerated human nature,” (John Hendryx) because we’re totally depraved.)

2) I believe scripture will be the most helpful and convincing though (it is God’s inerrant word, our final infallible authority) in what it says concerning the depravity of humanity, because this is how God Himself describes us (which doesn’t He define reality, not man?); pay very close attention to the language the scriptures use to describe all of us; none of us are outside of these descriptions, it all applies to every one of us:

First:

Proverbs 16:2 “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit.”

1 John 1:8 “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

What the LORD says concerning our sin and condition:

Psalm 5:9 “For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.”

Psalm 143:2 “…no one living is righteous before you.”

Proverbs 20:9 “Who can say, ‘I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin’?”

Isaiah 53:6a “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…”

Of believer’s in their previous natural condition (like all of men), Ephesians 2:1 says “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins.” Spiritually dead!

Psalm 39:5b “Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!”

Psalm 94:11 “the LORD–knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.”

Jeremiah 2:29 “Why do you contend with me? You have all transgressed against me, declares the LORD.”

Micah 7:2-4 “The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net. Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.”

Job 15:14-16 “What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!”

Proverbs 4:16-17 “For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.”

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

1 Corinthians 2:14 “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

Jeremiah 16:12 “…every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.”

Romans 8:7-8 “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

And finally, the most convincing climax of the depravity of man in the Old Testament scriptures, done by Paul in Romans 3:10-18:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

This is God’s holy word, inerrant, speaking of the things concerning the depth of man’s depravity. come to an end of trying to morally please God with your dead works. You will never avail by them. By the power of God, I pray you will be raised to new life and believe in Jesus Christ, the atonement for our sins.

… I figured I would post something pertaining to it (I know, I’m a cheese ball for even posting anything about it). So much mystery surrounds the mark of the beast. It’s just so blatant, but what does it mean? How will it appear? How will it manifest itself? I think this guy does a good job of explaining it without being nuts like so many fanatical eschatalogically dispensational types (e.g. Rev. Irvin Baxter, Jr., not all dispensationalists in general). I would like to make it known that I hold to the idea that the church will go through the tribulation; and that is the position of the paper below. I personally believe that scripture is rather clear concerning this, that the church will endure persecution, up to the very end, when Christ returns one more time to setup His kingdom, destroying His enemies and saving those who are eagerly waiting for Him. Why does the church think it will escape trials? That has been my position since I came to Christ, and in studying the scriptures over the years, I still hold to that position. That’s not to say I am any final authority on the matter at all (I’m no scholar, and there are people way smarter than me who would disagree with my position); I have a long way to go in my understand of these things; and also scripture is our final infallible authority anyway. This paper below supports my position on the tribulation. I’m really not convinced just yet on the whole amillenial position of most reformed people, mainly because Revelation seems to be clear that there will be a thousand year reign of Christ. So I have some undefined doctrines concerning end time matters. But, I’m fully convinced there will be one more return of Christ (not one secret return of Christ to rapture His people, then later come back again to setup His kingdom). I believe in one final return, where at the sound of the trumpet the dead in Christ shall rise first, and those of us who remain will be caught up with Him in the air; I believe this is what is called the Day of the Lord, the day in which He returns to destroy His enemies, redeem His people, and setup His kingdom. I’m convicted that all believers need to be ready for tribulation unto death. This is what Bonhoeffer believed, and lived out in Nazi Germany; faithful unto death.

The Mark of the Beast – Rev. Herman Hoeksema

Here’s an excerpt:

“The Mark: 666

The second means whereby the worshippers of the Lamb may be distinguished from the followers of the beast, the godly from the ungodly, is the mark of the beast. It is quite distinct from the first, not only in its character but also in its effect. The first means of distinction is the speech of the image of the beast, the second is a mark which everyone must receive and exhibit on his forehead or right hand; the former leads to the exposure and death of those that refuse to worship the beast, the latter to their expulsion from society: they cannot buy or sell. The latter, the mark of the beast, is, evidently, designed to supplement the former. the speech of the image. For the false prophet is, evidently, determined that absolutely every one without exception shall worship the anti-christian beast, and that in all the dominion of Antichrist no follower of the Lamb shall be left. To accomplish this purpose the speech of the image is not sufficient. It is conceivable that some, that many, may elude its detection. It will accomplish chiefly that the leaders of the Church, those that are called to preach the Gospel, to teach and to admonish the people of God, those who by virtue of their very position as leaders are called to confess the name of Christ and to denounce the name of Antichrist, are exposed and persecuted to the death. But this does not satisfy the false prophet. All must be exposed. And so he devises the mark of the beast, and “causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.” From this cunning device no man can escape. For the false prophet so arranges matters “that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” The mark of the beast is very effective. It will, indeed, divide men into two clearly distinct groups and opposing camps: the followers of the Lamb and the worshippers of the beast. In those days one will be able to discern clearly between him that serveth the Lord and him that serveth him not.”

The Number of the Beast: 666

Some more food for thought concerning the pre-trib rapture: Is the Pre-Tribulational Rapture Biblical? – Brian Schwertley

If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations– “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)–according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
> Colossians 2:20-23

In Christianity, God made man in His image, man sinned (telling God His glory was worthless), man was then cursed by not only temporal death, but eternal death, the deserved, earned wrath of God for sin; man was then so far in debt to God’s glory that he could never possibly recover by any efforts of his own; and man’s wickedness was so bad in fact that God had to send a perfect representative for him; He had to come to reconcile man back to Himself, putting him back in right relationship with Himself; and that ultimate man was Christ who died upon the cross and rose from the grave by the power of God who intercedes for His people, shedding His blood for wicked sinners who turned away from Him, enemies of God even.

However, in every other religion (and I feel I can say this with quite a bit of certainty), man attempts to make God in his own image, or attempts to suppress God from the picture altogether. All those in opposition to God’s favor, those apart from Christ that is, fabricate an image of God to suit what they want God to be. This is called idolatry. It is called exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshipping the creature rather than the Creator. Even those with a belief in no God is itself a belief, a belief that logically should lead to despair and ultimately suicide (because what’s the point in existing if there’s nothing beyond us?). Regardless, every other religion, including atheism, evolution, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, Judaism (after Christ), Shintoism, “Aztecism,” and any other religion is a suppression of the truth of God. And as the scripture above says about all of man’s attempts to morally reform himself from the corruption that is in his flesh and soul due to sin, “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” All of these religions suppose they can stop the corruption that is within them by doing good deeds and living a “right” life, but they profit nothing for the person in restraining sin in any manner.

The core problem with all of us is an inward problem with our hearts. Out of our hearts comes vile and wickedness beyond what we suppose. If all of us were down-right honest, we are all awful people. We lie, we deceive, we attempt to make ourselves appear as something we’re not, we’re unkind, harsh, prideful, greedy, we look down on others poor estate, we envy the riches of others, and we have tongues that whip others hearts with the vile and bitter poison of words, like a bull whip on a person’s bare back, even whipping our best-friends and spouses with these words. We cannot even conceive of the ways in which we sin we’re so blind to it all. We are WICKED, thoroughly depraved. All of our faculties have been disabled by sin, and this sin has corrupted our ability to do anything right. Even when we attempt to do something right, we have so many other motives and competing affections that we don’t even do those right things with purity, cancelling out any goodness within the good work. How awful is our state in sin! We simply cannot reform ourselves by trying to fix the problem outwardly. Even you, believer, you cannot reform your habitually sinful ways in this manner. It’s akin to wrapping a rotten carcas in fresh, clean, white linens to cover up the stink. Jesus called the Pharisees, men supposing to be doing everything according to the law of God, “white-washed tombs”. And that is exactly what a moralist is. Trying to conform to some set of rules by our own strenth is useless, mainly because we have no strength, we’re dead spiritually. What can a dead man do? Can a dead man think, walk, talk, act, do anything at all? And yet spiritually this is our current state in sin, apart from being regenerated by a work of God. We cannot think spiritually, walk spiritually, talk spiritually, do anything at all in a right manner. We are in a desperate condition, a condition without hope in ourselves. Humanism says that man can make himself better and that he will. Christianity says you’re dead in sin, believe in the Lord Christ and you will be delivered from this sin and raised to new life with a new body on the Day of the Lord, reconciled to God Himself, that He is our great delight forever; this indeed is heaven.

Every single religion in the world puts the burden on you, the sinner. I mean your sinfulness is your own fault, so you need to fix it, right? Well you can’t fix it yourself; even believer’s can’t after being saved. It is only by the Spirit’s power in them they are able to do anything to the glory of God. Sure, they are regenerated to new life and there is an inkling of a dim light shining out of the their hearts by the Holy Spirit living in them (compared to the light that will shine once they are glorified that is). But even after the regeneration of their souls, they still need something outside of themselves working within their hearts to change them, addressing the source of the problem, in order that they conform to the Lord’s revealed decrees, out of desire instead of duty.

And what a tragedy it is that so many within the visible church profess Christianity to be no different than all of the other religions of the world. And yet it is totally different. Christianity is the anti-thesis of self-made/man-made religion. Christianity, through the scriptures, reveals the true God to all men. All men are without excuse, and are commanded to believe in Christ. Religion says, “Sinner, you make yourself perfect, the burden is on you.” Christianity says, “You cannot make yourself perfect by any means of your own. You are totally unable. Sin has disabled you, sinner. Instead, I, the LORD, have provided my perfect Son, who lived up to my standard of perfection to take your place. He did what you could not do. And in order to pay your debt to Me for all of your sinning and wickedness toward me, He offered Himself up to the cross where He shed His blood to turn away my wrath that you earned. And upon dying, I raised Him from the dead by my power that if you believe in Him, sinner, you will be saved, justified in my presence, all of His righteousness will be credited to your account; and after you physically die, I will raise you to new life with a perfect body.”

All other religions, with all of their regulations and “severity to the body” can in no way stop anyone from sinning and doing that which is evil. Try as you will, you will fail. The harder you try to conform to a standard, the greater you will see your imperfections. The core of the problem is not outward, but it is inward, within the heart. All of us need a heart transplant. But we cannot do this ourselves. It is a work of God alone as the great Surgeon. This is the reason Christ came in order to give life, real life, eternal life, to those who believe in Him for salvation. Apart from Christ, man has absolutely no hope. In Christ “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). This is the true religion, salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We have no other hope. All that came before him and all who come after him proclaiming to be the way are frauds and will be exposed for what they are. All other religions are a figment of nothingness and amount to idolatry, including moralistic Christianity.

And on a side note, how appropriate is the scripture I referenced at the top in this modern day of evangelicalism, where pastor after pastor preaches a moralistic, yet positive message? You see, it’s the positive aspect of those sermons that is so appealing to unbelievers. I mean what a better way to get people in the church than to not tell them to “repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ” for salvation. And yet these pastors are simply laying a heavier burden on people than before they heard it. Moralism is fatal to the soul. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees more than anyone He came in contact with. Why? Because they were moralists. Moralism is assuming you have the ability to do something you are unable to do, assume you’re doing it all right, and yet still be totally blind to the fact that you’re just as much, if not more of a sinner than you were before you started morally “reforming” yourself. Paul’s charge to the Colossians was that after having been reconciled to God by the blood of Christ, why did they still subject themselves to human (man-made) precepts and teachings? I cannot stress how much this still applies today! The church must be on its guard against destructive “positive” messages that actually preach no gospel at all. “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8) These messages are rampant and spreading like a wild-fire. Satan is hard at work to put out the light of Christ in the West. And he’s getting a lot done. And what a better place to hit and change people’s mind about what Christianity actually says than in the church itself! O how I pray the church as a whole would return to the fundamental teachings of scripture and preach the gospel in every message, make the application the gospel itself, and cast off moralism and all human monergism like the dung that it is.