For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.                                    Romans 3:23

And that, my friend, includes you!

But what are the consequences of that fact? What does it mean to come short of the glory of God? Listen to some further words from Romans:

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.                             Romans 6:23

That means there will be a payday someday, as one preacher put it, when you will receive the wages you earned: death. Not physical death alone, but spiritual death as well. That means eternal separation from God, and eternal punishment in hell, unless . . .

Unless you receive the gift of God, which is eternal life in heaven.

Notice, you deserve hell; you don’t deserve heaven. So heaven is a gift. You can do nothing to earn it. The gift of eternal life can be “received” only by faith—faith in what Jesus did to save sinners like you from hell. He died on the cross in the place of all who would confess their sin and believe in Him as the One Who took the punishment for their sin. You cannot earn heaven; you have already earned hell. Isn’t it time to consider these matters seriously? Think. The gift God offers is heaven—

WHAT A GIFT THAT IS! WHY NOT RECEIVE IT WITH GRATITUDE THIS CHRISTMAS?

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. The Use of Scripture in Counseling by Jay Adams
5. Sanctification and Counseling by Jay Adams
6. Critical Stages in Biblical Counseling by Jay Adams
7. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Wage and Gift appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10, there is a list of the sort of people who will not “inherit God’s kingdom.” Here, the word “kingdom” refers, obviously, to its eternal phase, heaven.

This list sounds final, the way that it is worded, no hope in sight. But it isn’t. Indeed, in the very next verse we read,

These are what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were declared righteous, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

If you think you are too bad to go to heaven, then think again. Take a look at the list and see if it includes you. You see, it isn’t good people who are granted eternal life—there are none. What qualifies one for salvation is that he isn’t saved already.

Let me put it another way: if you aren’t a sinner it’s impossible for your sins to be forgiven, for you to be washed clean of them, for you to be declared righteous. Since you are a sinner, you can be cleansed.

The list was not intended to be a final word. It includes only those who remain in the unrighteous condition in which you now find yourself. If you are not saved, you will be excluded from God’s kingdom. But if you believe the Gospel, you will be transformed, placed in a different category—saved!

Now, will you continue in your present state, or will you come to Jesus Christ as Savior? If you want to be freed not only from the guilt of sin, but from its power, then repent of it (I.e., confess to God that you are a sinner, guilty of breaking His law), and believe the Gospel (that Jesus Christ died in the place of sinners like you, bearing their guilt, suffering in their stead the punishment due them).

If you will believe this message, you will be granted a place in God’s eternal kingdom on the basis of His merits. Your faith is but the way to receive the gift of eternal life.

It is a fearful thing to have your name remain on that list. Now is the time for it to be expunged. Don’t delay.

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post The Despicable List appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

In the Massachusetts Bay colony during the early 1700s, convicted men and women literally became “marked men.” For a designated number of years they were required by law to wear, sewed to the sleeve, a large letter made from scarlet cloth revealing the sin which they had committed. A stood for adultery, B for blasphemy, D for drunkenness, F for forgery, I for incest, R for rape, and T for thievery.

That law was later repealed as being too inhumane for our society. And some people today mistakenly believe that because the law was repealed and the letters banished that the crimes they signify have been removed.

Tragically, however, sin has not decreased—only public concern about sin. Though those letters have long since disappeared, the sins they indicate still reach into every home, family, and life in some form or another.

Yes, the letters are gone, but in God’s sight we wear them yet! If suddenly a scarlet letter were to appear on your sleeve, what would it be?

“Impossible!” you say.

Don’t be too sure. The Word of God tells us that before all the universe that very thing shall happen: “Nothing is covered that won’t be uncovered or hidden that won’t be known” (Luke 12:2). What a terrible moment that will be when you stand before God and men to have all of the past revealed!

But I have good news for you. There is One who has died to free you from the guilt and penalty of your sins. Listen to these glorious words: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life by Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Because of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, because at Calvary His precious blood flowed from wounded hands, feet, and side, you may rid yourself from the scarlet letter.

Think of it, Christ, the very Son of God, took all the shame and ignominy of your sin upon Himself. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

Today as He looks upon you, what does He see—a life branded with the guilt of sin or a heart cleansed by faith in Him? If you have never before looked to Him for forgiveness, for cleansing, for the assurance of eternal life, why not look to Him and trust Him right now? Why should you continue to wear a letter of shame? The choice is yours—the crimson blood or the scarlet letter.

“Let it be known to you brothers that through this Man forgiveness of sins is announced to you, and by Him everybody who believes is justified in everything in regard to which he couldn’t be justified by Moses’ law.” (Acts 13:38-39).

Check out our online courses, including, Introduction to Nouthetic Counseling and  The Use of Scripture in Counseling, taught by Jay Adams!

Books related to counseling others:

1. Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams
2. The Christian Counselor’s Manual by Jay Adams
3. How to Help People Change by Jay Adams
4. Check out our Bookstore for all the best counseling books!

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For more biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post You Are a Marked Man appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Do you really?

“Yep, as you always say.”

You know it only came once—at Bethlehem.

“Well, yeah . .. .but . .. .”

I know what you mean, but it’s strange how we want “it” more than once. When you say that, the question becomes, “What is it that you want to happen more often? Christ’s birth?” Or . . .

“OK. You’re right. I was thinking of all of the other things.”

Right. We have a background that it’s hard to alter, isn’t it?

“We do.”

But I wasn’t saying what I said to fuss at you; I wanted to make an important point.

“What’s that?”

I’m sure you appreciate and understand the incarnation, but suppose—just suppose—it did happen more than once.

“What?”

Suppose what took place back there in Bethlehem had to be repeated.

“Then what?”

That’s the question. What it would indicate is that what God did back there so many years ago wasn’t enough—something was incomplete.

“Then the Gospel – – -“

Right. The Gospel wouldn’t be the Gospel. Like those sacrifices that had to be offered again and again, Christ’s work would not have been complete.

“And, if it weren’t once-for-all we couldn’t even be sure we were saved?”

Can’t be sure— this is all speculation, of course—but it would seem so.

I guess I don’t want Christmas to come again, after all—at least the original one!

Me either.

The Christian Counselor’s New Testament and Proverbs, translated by Jay Adams

Visit our online bookstore for all your biblical counseling resource needs.
For biblical counseling training, check out our list of INS Online Courses.

Follow INS on Social Media:
– Facebook: noutheticstudies
– Twitter: @noutheticstud
– Instagram: @noutheticstudies

The post Once a Year? appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

Preparationism teaches, in effect, that in order to become regenerate a person has to put himself in the way of it. He is to read Scripture, put away all known sins, go to church regularly, and so forth. Then, in time, if he becomes “sensible” (aware and concerned about his sins), it would be allowable to present the Gospel to him.

People were put off for months–even years–before some self-righteous prig would deem them ready for the Gospel. I first ran into this at a conference years ago, when one of the other speakers told me after a message (and these are his exact words), “You’re preaching the Gospel too soon.” I was bowled over by such a comment, and so I investigated this entire movement.

It turns out that Bonar was right. He wrote against this works-righteousness, and even wrote some of our most beloved hymns to counter it. Bunyan, who seems to have been adversely affected by this teaching for a while (read Pilgrim’s Progress carefully), at length wrote a sermon entitled, “Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ.” And Jonathan Edwards was taught it. But, instead of groaning for months on end about his sins, Edwards, it seems, came to a sudden happy conversion. But it had made strong inroads into his thinking. And if Cherry, his biographer, is correct, it bothered him all his life that his Conversion didn’t fit the pattern. It was preparationism that, in New England led to the halfway covenant that wreaked havoc upon the region.

The Puritans who adopted and propagated this view (not all Puritans did) were the first psychologizers of religion. By laying out a pattern that was to be followed in order to be regenerated, they tried to understand the steps of conversion and then, having done so, attempted to program conversion step by step in individuals.

We must avoid ever returning to such teaching. Along with this astounding statement that almost bowled me over, another incident knocked me for a loop. The third speaker at that conference was also a preparationist. In his preaching, he spent the entire week trying to assure people that unless they had experienced the pattern I just described, they weren’t saved. I had encouraged a young girl who had just become a Christian to attend the conference (not knowing what we were about to run into since at such previous conferences nothing such as this had ever occurred). His preaching so unsettled her that she became uncertain of her salvation. When I spoke to the preacher who has caused this, he said, “Well when you plow with the Word, you sometimes take up the wheat with the tares.” I let him know that I was dismayed at such an unbiblical comment. It took us several weeks to put this girl’s faith back together again.

Why am I talking about this? Because there are signs that this teaching isn’t dead. While not yet widespread, some of the materials that teach it are out there on the “evangelical” market. Perhaps the most alarming is Alleine’s Alarm to the Unconverted. It is a virtual handbook of the doctrine. There is a chapter in it entitled, “Directions to the Unconverted” in which such things as I have mentioned above are advised, but nowhere is the reader told, “Repent and believe the Gospel.”

Keep a sharp eye cocked to detect any inklings of preparationism and refute it as soon as you detect it. Horatius Bonar’s materials and hymns will be a great help to you in the effort.

The post Horatius Bonar appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

The statement has to do with a nation. But it is just as true of those purporting to be “God’s people” as a congregation, as a household or as individuals.

Lack of Knowledge—and, in particular, the willful lack thereof, is a serious matter. Christianity is not fundamentally an emotional religion although emotion plays a secondary and derivative part in it. It is a religion propagated by teaching. It is a religion of truth. It is a religion of propositions. It is a religion that is logical. It is a religion of a Book. It is, primarily, a religion in which everything depends upon a message—the Gospel. Apart from knowledge of and belief in the vicarious death and bodily resurrection of Jesus, there is no Christianity—regardless of what may be taught in its name.

In Hosea, not only the people in general, but the prophet, the priest and the individual are singled out. God says that since they rejected Him, He will reject them.

That is a tragic fact. But how true it is of so many in this land where the message of salvation is widely spread by word of mouth, TV and radio, the printed page. There is no excuse for not knowing it; there is less excuse for rejecting it once one does know.

Knowledge has to do not merely with the communicating of facts. In the passage, as elsewhere in Scripture, it refers to facts believed, and acted upon—what some have called “experimental knowledge.” It refers to acceptance, ready compliance and dependence upon the message that is preached.

Counselor, your counselee will not be helped unless he first knows the truth—then accepts is as true and that upon which he depends for his life and eternity. Don’t assume more than you should. Be certain that he understands and trusts basic Christian knowledge of the truth.

The post Knowledge appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.

In the book the writer states that the “gospel interprets, directs, and changes our lives.”

He writes of “experiencing the gospel.”

And one of his repeated phrases is “live out the gospel,” whatever that means!

He believes “Everyone needs Jesus and His gospel every moment of every day.”

He says, in one paragraph, “We need to correct and instruct others with the gospel so that we might grow in Christ and equip others to do the same.”

This book is symptomatic of what is going on all over the Christian world— people are obsessed with what they call the “gospel,” and believe that reflecting on so-called effects of their “gospel” (as they understand–or misunderstand—it) will help them grow as believers. People (in such contexts) are rarely called to “good works.” The work of the Spirit in the heart to produce His fruit is neglected. The gospel has been greatly misunderstood in their confused thinking. Reflection upon it, and other strange ideas, are being set forth as the means of sanctification.

The gospel is defined in 1 Corinthians 15: 1ff as containing two points:

1. Christ’s death in the place of guilty sinners (upper ton hamartion hemon)
2. His bodily resurrection from the dead.

Paul says that believing these facts “saves.” While the Gospel must be proclaimed in clarity, it must not be misunderstood or misused. Otherwise, it no longer is the “good news.”

The post Everything = Nothing appeared first on Institute for Nouthetic Studies | Biblical Counseling.