‘Praise
the Lord’(Psalm 103:1-2,20-22). Let’s praise Him for His ‘steadfast
love’. He is ‘abounding in steadfast love’(Psalm 103:8). How are we to
respond to His ‘steadfast love’? Are we to say, ‘God loves me. I can do
what I like’? No! We must not think like this. We’re not to say, ‘I’ll
keep on sinning. God will keep on forgiving’(Romans 6:1-2). God’s Word
tells us something very different. Loved by God, we learn to love Him.
When God’s ‘steadfast love’ has really touched our hearts, it changes
our lives. This is the great change which the Psalmist has in mind when
he writes, ‘As the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His
steadfast love toward those who fear Him... The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear Him’(Psalm 103:11,17). Let’s thank God for His love - and live to please Him!
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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