‘The
Lord reigns’(Psalm 96:10; Psalm 97:1). ‘The Lord is King!’. He is not
only ‘the King all-glorious above’. He is ‘the King of love’. He is ‘our
Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend!’. He is not only ‘the King of
heaven’. He is ‘the God of grace’. He is ‘the King of mercy’(Church Hymnary,
35,36,388,360,86). His reign is not to be restricted to some faraway
heaven. It is not to be a reign that is far removed from the
practicalities of our everyday life. He is to reign in our hearts.
He is to reign in every part of our life. Let His reign of love begin.
Let His grace and mercy control all that you do. We must pray, ‘Reign in me, Sovereign Lord, reign in me’. When we say, ‘Let Your Kingdom come’ and ‘let Your will be done’, we must pray, ‘Captivate my heart. Establish there Your throne’(Mission Praise, 570).
A response to a comment by G. R. Osborne on Berkouwer’s understanding of the doctrine of final perseverance
In his contribution to Clark Pinnock (editor), Grace Unlimited (1975), G. R. Osborne states that Berkouwer, in Faith and Perseverance, pp. 9-10, “speaks of the time less ness of the doctrine of final perseverance, founded on ‘the richness and abidingness of salvation” (p. 188, emphasis mine). This single-sentence comment on Berkouwer’s view hardly gives a fair indication of the type of thinking found in Chapter 1 of Berkouwer’s Faith and Perseverance - “Time li ness and Relevance” (pp. 9-14, emphasis mine). Berkouwer insists that “the living preaching of the Scriptures, which offer no metaphysical and theoretical views about … ‘permanency’ as an independent theme in itself, does nothing to encourage ‘a continuity which is … opposed in any way to the living nature of faith” (p. 13). Berkouwer stresses that “The perseverance of the saints is not primarily a theoretical problem but a confession of faith” (p. 14) and that “The perseverance of the saints is unbreakably connected wi...
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