Dear Friends, If you are like me, you may have had a bad experience in the past with churches that stressed “holiness.” Not because churches shouldn’t, but because the focus was placed on outward conformity to externalisms, or a prescribed set of moralism’s that sucked the atmosphere of grace out of the church. In fact, the more effort-based versions of “holiness” are stressed, the more grace disappears – and the vacuum left in its wake is filled with even more rigid standards of morality and law-based duties – driving all who truly struggle with sin into hiding or pretending. And of all the books I have ever read on holiness (or godliness) none (in my opinion) hold a candle to “God’s Way of Holiness” by the Scottish minister Horatius Bonar (1808-1889). A book I have given to numerous people to read. If you were one who was turned off, or wounded, by a form of holiness based on what Bonar calls, “constrained externalism” or self-effort, I offer you this selection as a taste of w...
Dear Friends, Every once in a while, you come across an individual who can say a lot in a very little space. I don’t possess that ability, but Thomas Wilcox (1621-1687) did. Below are some of his profound insights on the Gospel found in the only tract he wrote, originally entitled, “A Choice Drop of Honey from the Rock Christ.” And don’t think that because it’s about the Gospel, you can just brush it aside because you already know it. Jerry Bridges (one of my profs at seminary and a prolific author who passed in 2016) once played us a recording in class of the responses given by best-selling Christian authors at a Bookseller’s Conference in response to the question, “What is the Gospel?” The responses were lacking at best and a couple of them made us wonder if could even be Christian at all. So, read these excerpts from his tract and see if you get what he means and if you agree. (I have updated the language where possible.) Enjoy. “When you believe and come to Christ, you...