Repentance – Planter, Pastor, Preacher

When You Pray

Let us then be faithful to pray as our Lord taught us, following the pattern and petitions he has given. Consider that our Lord Jesus has given us a prayer, which contains, as Calvin says, “all that he allows us to seek of him, all that is of benefit to us, all that we need ask.[14] Such is the kindness and mercy of God, who has given the prayer he desires to hear from us.

Jealousy, Riches, and the Kindness of God

Paul’s question presumes our knowledge of his ongoing epistolary argument: “did [Israel] stumble in order that they might fall?” (11:11). Did Israel in fact stumble, and if so how? Indeed, they did; indeed they have, as Paul describes in the ninth chapter, “They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame” (Rom. 9:32-33). Pursuing the righteousness of God by works not faith, they stumbled over Christ. Or, as Paul puts it in the tenth chapter, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:3-4).

Christ the King

Despite his sinless perfection, he was falsely accused, illegally tried, and executed on a Roman instrument of tortuous death. Yet, it was his heavenly Father’s will that he die, for in death he took upon himself the just penalty for our sin.

The Few and Chosen

If you have heard the free offer of the gospel and received it, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ; if you trust only in the finished work of Christ, looking not to your righteousness but his alone before God; if you know the conviction of the Holy Spirit and see his presence producing fruit through you; you are one of the few, the chosen, not merely an invited guest but a child of the King.

Evidence of a Depraved Mind

And while Herodias held what she perceived to be her trophy of triumph, the Word of God triumphs through the faithful preaching of the Word that by the work of the Holy Spirit the depraved mind be conquered and sanctified by the Word of truth.