Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by April J. Buchanan

All sexual immorality is sinful because it is a violation of God’s holy law. When we proclaim the gospel to the unregenerate, we do not always need to identify every individual sin, yet neither should we neglect doing so when it serves to awaken the conscience. Scripture bears witness that every person is a sinner before a holy God. No one stands justified before Him by his own righteousness.

We have all broken God’s law. Scripture teaches that whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles at one point is guilty of all. God’s holiness is so perfect that even one transgression leaves us condemned before Him. Therefore, we proclaim what God’s Word declares of every person: we are sinners and lawbreakers before our Creator.

The gospel begins with the holiness of God, the sinfulness of man, and the reality of the fall. We are born with a sinful nature and willingly commit sin. Therefore, there is no hope of salvation apart from the grace and mercy of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The good news is that God saves all who repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for the salvation of their souls.

Sexual immorality has been pervasive throughout human history. It marked the ancient world, the culture of the New Testament era, and it remains prevalent today. Even among the Pharisees, God’s law was distorted. They taught that a man could divorce his wife for nearly any reason, but Christ exposed the corruption of their teaching. He revealed the true perfection of God’s law and uncovered the sinful condition of the human heart, showing that our outward actions flow from inward corruption. In doing so, He demonstrated that every one of us stands condemned apart from Him.

Fornication, adultery, homosexual practice, lust, pornography, and every form of sexual immorality are violations of God’s perfect law. These sins are not uniquely damning, for all sin brings guilt before a holy God. Yet they are truly sinful because God Himself calls them sin. Neither these sins nor any other can leave us righteous before Him through our own works. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. God therefore commands all people everywhere to repent and believe in His Son.

When the church, those who have been called out of darkness and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, begins to call good what God calls sin, or affirms and celebrates what He forbids, she misrepresents both Christ and His gospel. She obscures God’s holiness before those who are dead in their trespasses and sins. The law is good. It cannot save, but it faithfully reveals our guilt and our desperate need for a Savior.

The beauty of the gospel is seen most clearly when we rightly understand the law. Christ came and fulfilled the righteousness we could never attain. He lived the perfect life we failed to live and died the death we deserved. On the cross, He bore the wrath due to sinners, becoming our substitute. He rose again in victory over sin and death and now reigns as Lord and King. Through faith in Him alone, sinners are reconciled to God and clothed in His perfect righteousness.

The world will continue to call evil good and good evil because it is spiritually dead. This should not surprise us. What is grievous is when the church follows the world by altering God’s law. Once sin is redefined, the gospel itself is inevitably distorted. If sin is no longer recognized as sin, repentance loses its meaning, the cross loses its necessity, and grace loses its glory.

Yet when the church faithfully calls sin what God calls sin, she is not withholding hope. She is proclaiming it. Only then can she faithfully announce the good news that Christ came into the world to save sinners. The law exposes our disease. The gospel reveals the only cure.

If we truly love the lost, we will not change God’s law in an attempt to make sinners more comfortable. To do so offers false peace while leaving souls in danger. Genuine love speaks the truth. It calls sinners to repentance while extending the free offer of the gospel to all who will come to Christ in faith.

We must love every person because each bears the image of God. We must speak with humility because we ourselves were once dead in sin. Yet we must also proclaim without compromise that salvation is found in Christ alone. There is forgiveness for every repentant sinner, cleansing for every guilty conscience, and reconciliation with God through the perfect life, atoning death, and triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ. To Him alone belongs all the glory.

Loving the sinner does not mean celebrating or affirming what God calls sin. True love calls sinners to repentance and faith in Christ for the salvation of their souls. It does not require withdrawal from the world in a way that abandons our witness, but it does require faithfulness to God’s Word. The church must hold fast to the goodness of God’s law, faithfully proclaim the gospel, and love every person as one made in the image of God, while refusing to celebrate what God has forbidden.

Our hope is not found in redefining sin, but in the Savior who forgives and redeems sinners. Christ alone is the hope of salvation for all who repent and trust in Him.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

The beauty and grace of God, known and felt, understood and embraced, are a comfort to the soul in every age and every stage of life. Yet such tenderness and compassion, such peace and comfort, are not known merely when we see that all is working well according to God’s kind providence. He rules and reigns no less over those seasons in which His providence feels like abandonment.

The soul cries, “O God, my God, where are You? Do You not see my troubles or hear my cries?” Yet, like the psalmist, it is called to remember the Lord and find comfort, not first in changing circumstances, but in who He is.

I can think of nothing sweeter, more wonderful, or more steadfast as a foundation and a comfort to the soul than the truth known and believed concerning the character of God. Nothing.

When all is well with our soul, and it seems God is working all things according to His wise and kind providence, while trials appear but distant memories, the heart rightly rejoices in His mercies and delights in His goodness. But when those sorrows become familiar once again, and a new day dawns with troubles of its own, known to God though unforeseen by His children, we often discover remaining weakness within ourselves. The soul sinks beneath the weight of fresh burdens. Yet it is then that truth proves itself an unshakable foundation.

The remembrance of the God who is ever faithful steadies the heart. No trial may touch our lives apart from His sovereign hand. If He has permitted it, then it is subject to Him. Though the soul may feel such heaviness that continuing seems more than it can bear, and though God may seem distant, only the foolish man makes his feelings the measure of reality. The saint has learned the folly of resting upon feelings, for his God is faithful.
Whatever God does is right and good. Whatever He permits, He governs. He hears the cries of His people. These truths remain true whether we feel them to be true or not.

O despairing soul, remember the Lord. Go to the psalms and hear the cries of the saints who poured out their hearts before God. Open the Holy Scriptures and behold His unwavering faithfulness throughout every generation. Remember the Lord.

And in your days of peace and blessing, do not take His mercies for granted. Do not imagine them to be your own earning. Tomorrow may dawn with troubles, yet your God remains sovereign still. He is worthy of your praise in the daylight as in the night, in the cold as in the warmth, in seasons of longing as in seasons of rejoicing, in days of want as in days of abundance.

Look to Him. He is your great reward. If you belong to Christ, He has redeemed your soul. He rules and reigns over all things. Call upon Him when you are confident He hears you, and call upon Him still when your soul is cast down and you cannot sense His nearness. Cast yourself upon His mercy even when you cannot feel His kindness, for He can do you no evil.

Look to Christ. When the new day finally dawns and the troubles have passed away, you will discover that He was faithful all along. Though you could not always perceive His hand, He was accomplishing in you something far greater than anything you endured.

Trust Him, dear one. He is faithful, and He is worthy.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

To what, O soul, do you find beautiful? Christ? And how have you counseled yourself in who He is? Have you imagined Him as your heart desires and contented yourself according to doctrines and promises that lead you away from that most wonderful Lord? Is His Word beautiful, and are His promises better than what your heart has devised? Have you found Him wonderful? Has the oppression without exposed your heart as loving a Christ of your own making, a Christ you so quickly abandon in times of trouble?

Has your heart delighted in delusion and worked to uphold that which you have claimed to be true, and yet it is most evident that what you have claimed about Him is your own sinful heart’s delusions? Oh, how deceitful is the heart of man, which knows not that true and gracious work within. Has the heart drunk of its own bitterness, and the Christ which it has come to profess is not perfect and His work incomplete, so that this heart must add its own merit through suffering in order to earn its own way?

What doctrine delights the soul? That derived from its own secret and wicked chambers and dressed in spiritual rags that bear a semblance of being white until set against that Word which reveals its cheap imitation? Has that which is without or within governed and led the heart astray by its own willingness?

Oh Christ. Christ. What Christ has delighted the soul? Is He the God of Scripture or that which has been imagined in the mind of man?

Sweet counsel, bitter counsel of the soul. Meditations of imagination to which that spiritual and unbiblical heart delights. And yet there is Christ, beautiful and wonderful to that soul for which no other may contend.

Yet the Lord does not leave His people to the counsel of their own hearts. He brings them again and again to Himself, revealing what is false and establishing what is true, until the soul learns to rest not in what it has imagined, but in Christ as He has revealed Himself.

No matter how wicked and oppressive those things are externally, or how deep the wounds to the afflicted soul, the strength and comfort, the hope and assurance that the saint has in Christ cannot be overthrown. That man who has set his hope upon Christ and knows Him for who He truly is has not a heart defeated by what he endures, but a confidence that though he may be weak, he is strengthened by that gracious work within. He sets his mind upon the truth of who God is, and once again he is encouraged.

That man whose God is the God of Scripture, upon whom he has fixed every hope and assurance, may find strength and encouragement no matter what he endures. He speaks not to his own heart false hope, false assurances, false promises, and then claims them as his own, determining that if his heart has admired such things then they must have been placed there by God, and thus his heart leads him off into ruin while doing so in God’s name.

Oh no. Bitter and wicked heart. That heart which delights in misery to its own pleasure or embraces desires that delude the soul. That saint who has learned how to speak to his own heart does so according to the truth of who God is and what He has said as He meant it in His Word. That saint fears not that what he has said God would do will make him a liar and deceiver. No, that saint is not speaking imaginations of his own heart. He has counseled his heart according to God’s Word and therein finds every promise to be true.

The burden is not on him to see it come to pass. That is for God. He is to believe what the Lord has said, walk in it, and be comforted that no matter what he may endure in life, he has Christ, whom he shall find to be greater than every earthly delight.

Christ when he rises. Christ when he labors. Christ when he errs and repents. Christ when he struggles. Christ in the day. Christ in the night. Christ to lead him home.

For as many reasons as his heart finds to be dissatisfied, frustrated, tormented, boastful, proud, or arrogant, so much the more does he find Christ beautiful, and in his heart that which remains is placed under the authority and sanctifying power of the Word and work of the Spirit.

He submits himself to the Word, seeking that beautiful work within whereby he is sanctified and whereby he beholds the beauty and glory of Christ, so that when he hears any word spoken contrary to the truth, or when his own heart entertains that which is contrary, he may immediately resist and rebuke every contrary thought and hold firm to the truth, setting his heart and mind thereupon.

Christ. He has Christ.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

How then do you walk, dear saint? Do you walk as one who trusts the Lord, believing that He who declares you righteous by His own righteousness imputed to you has spoken truly in every promise? Is He who began a good work in you powerless to complete it? Is He who is sovereign over all things surprised or dismayed as you are? Where do you turn your eyes, your ears, your heart, your mind?

Oh downcast saint, troubled traveler, fellow pilgrim, if you are His, you may well find in your travels hardships that assault your hope, and as you settle in a place, find yourself comfortable and compromising in your convictions, your soul assaulted by your sins. Dear saint, if you are His, you will err in the way, but He is faithful. He who began a good work in you will see it to completion.

You may find in yourself cause for boasting and then find in yourself cause for despair, but in both you shall be shown that there is nothing in yourself worthy of either. Your mind shall again be informed by truth, and your heart humbled before the One who is faithful. In the day of boasting, set your eyes upon Him. In the day of despair, whether by circumstances without or battles within, set your eyes upon Him. Look to Christ. Remember Him.

For who can ever make it to that Celestial City apart from Him? The greatest threats are not outside but within. For the mind of man, with its many thoughts, and the heart of man, prone to wander, find within themselves troubles, pangs, and loves enough to destroy him in a day were it not for the grace of God. That grace upholds him in the day of adversity without and, much more, in his daily battle within.

Any man who professes Christ and has no struggle within himself against his sin has lost sight of Christ and His Word. Let the man who loves Christ set his eyes upon Him and find that gracious work within effectual and powerful against every foe, without and within.

Let him be careful when assimilation with the culture is no longer good and pleasing to God but instead leads his heart after their idols, their love of self, their hatred toward authority, and their claims to love God while showing themselves His enemy. Dear saint, guard your heart.

For many live as those of whom the Psalmist spoke when the kings of the earth conspired against God and His Anointed. Citizens and aliens alike, having assimilated themselves, devote undivided loyalty to their kings and kingdoms, defending even those “rights” that are contrary to God. They show their allegiance to their own happiness, comforts, prosperity, and protection at any cost.

The child of God in this world, whether alien or citizen, must first show himself a child of God and then, where God has placed him, honor Him there as a good citizen. The alien assimilating himself. The citizen obeying governing authorities as unto the Lord. Yet never so as to disobey God. For then he must stand where God stands and show his allegiance to Him, doing so as one who bears His name and represents Him before men.

Dear fellow pilgrim, your feet may travel far, but your heart and mind are prone to wander much farther. Is your hope anchored in Christ? Is your faith in Him alone? Wherever you are rooted, and wherever your feet may travel, be careful of your heart. If it is in allegiance to Christ, then you will honor Him there.

No matter how much difficulty there is in the world, we find within ourselves our greatest threat and battle. Resist the temptation to wander. Resist the temptation of the world to seek that which promises all your heart desires at the cost of compromising where your feet must firmly be planted.

And there, dear saint, stand firm.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Does your tender heart remain tender under the ever-increasing trials and tribulations of life? Has it found such grace as increases knowledge, strengthens the soul, and, while the heart grows wise, causes it to remain tender? Has knowledge increased alongside love abounding?

Or have the hardships of life and the striving of the soul, having found the exceeding sinfulness of sin and its increasing presence among men, caused the heart once broken for those dead in sin to now regard evangelism as time not well spent in prayer and activity? Has the wickedness of the world, and eyes now beholding sin as wicked and vile as it truly is, caused the heart to grow callous? Is the heart once tender now content to sit back and let God do the saving apart from the appointed means He has ordained, absolving itself of any responsibility to proclaim the Gospel whereby God works in regeneration?

Men well studied and not well lived are a contradiction to the work of grace. For it is grace that increases knowledge, and that not merely intellectual knowledge, but knowledge effectually wrought in the heart, changing the man and increasing his faith in God, whereby his life continues to demonstrate the power of God in him. A man whose life is contrary to increasing knowledge and genuine faith worked out in love is a man who ought to examine himself to see whether he is truly in the faith.

There are many who profess Christ and yet show themselves increasingly boastful and proud in their false doctrines, false beliefs, and false practices. Having their minds fixed in error, they resist the correction of Scripture and remain unwilling to submit their cherished beliefs to the test of God’s Word. Yet knowledge that is merely intellectual is not born of saving faith. True knowledge humbles the heart, exposes pride, and leads men to repentance and faith demonstrated in lives changed and being changed by the truth.

Dear saint, the heart is continually influenced by error. It does not naturally gravitate toward truth. Our bent is toward evil. We must be willing to admit this and put our hearts and minds to the Word, allowing it to straighten our crooked thinking. We must be humbled under its instruction, submitted to its commands, and take heed to its warnings and prohibitions. If we seek only what validates what we already want to believe and what makes us feel good, then we set our hearts on affirming our own errors and our own wickedness.

We do not naturally walk straight. We do not naturally think rightly. We must set our hearts and minds upon the truth, meditate upon it, understand our weaknesses, and discipline ourselves in the way of truth. The more that truth is worked in us, the more our hearts are changed, and the greater the influence of God’s Word becomes in our hearts and minds than the influence of the things we see and hear in the world.

The heart that increases in knowledge is not as ignorant or unstable as it once was. As grace works through knowledge applied to the heart, the saint grows in stability. Though he is more aware of sin’s snares, he is also better equipped to proclaim the Gospel, having gained knowledge that has humbled his heart. He knows the grace that has kept him through every place from which he should never have risen again. His love for God has only increased in the knowledge of who He truly is.

He will neither diminish God’s glory to win the lost nor dismiss anyone as too far gone, for that judgment does not belong to him. His command is to proclaim the Gospel, and he will do so in love for every lost soul. He may be tempted to despair as many reject that external call, but God is faithful, and He will surely save all who come to Him in faith.

If he should draw his last breath never having witnessed one man repent and walk according to that faith, he will guard his heart from despair at the wickedness of men, trusting the God who is sovereign in salvation and glorified in obedience.

Dear saint, we tend to our hearts not by seeking what prompts emotional excitement, but by understanding our weaknesses and looking to Christ and His Word. Set your heart and mind upon His Word. This is not merely a glancing over the text or seeking some comfort from it. It is going into the text so that it may search our hearts and minds, exposing every error and bent within us.

For if we think all our ways are perfect, we are already deceived. Let His Word search me and show me my errors that they may be made straight. Let me never think I have arrived, that I am perfect, that I have no error or bent remaining in me, that all my thoughts are sound and all my ways are right. For when pride takes hold, I shall surely fall.

Dear saint, if we increase in knowledge with hearts that desire truth, we will never exhaust Scripture’s willingness to correct us, straighten us, and lead us forth in righteousness. And when we have been shown that which is straight, sound, and true, let us hold firm convictions according to sound doctrine. It is neither good nor safe to seek a false neutrality that nowhere exists. Where God has spoken, we may stand.

Firm convictions in sound doctrine, where grace abounds, are never apart from genuine love. If grace has its perfect work, it will always show itself in love, and never in opposition to truth. Let both be evident for Christ’s sake.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

“The Lord knows.” “The Lord sees.” “God’s got me.”

Consider the beauty of these words on the lips of those who speak them rightly. How they honor God. How they express trust in His perfect knowledge, His righteous judgment, and His faithful care for His people.

Now consider how often these same words are found on the lips of those who have done what is wicked before God and against others, yet invoke His name in their own defense. How much worse is it for such as these?

The Lord does know. He does see. And He will act righteously.

Be careful of the man who has no fear of calling upon the Lord to defend him in his wickedness. Men who habitually lie often have no fear of God. They readily claim that God knows their hearts and sees the truth, seeking to place themselves in the position of righteousness while portraying those they have wronged as the villains.

Yet God does see.

Liars speak the native tongue of their father, the devil. Their hearts are set upon wickedness and falsehood. Though they invoke God’s name in their defense, He is not with them in their sin. Whether those they have wronged belong to Christ or not, God sees, and He judges righteously.

Unless this truth pierces their hearts and they are brought to genuine repentance and faith, they will continue in their self-justifications, convincing themselves that their evil is good and that God stands with them in it. They may not fear Him now, but they shall.

There is comfort here for the one who has been falsely accused, slandered, or mistreated. The Lord knows. The Lord sees. No lie escapes His notice. No injustice is hidden from His sight. His judgment is perfect, and His righteousness cannot be corrupted.

Yet there is also a warning for us. We must be careful what we say in God’s name, especially as His children. We know Him, and we represent Him before the world. We must not assume that because we belong to Him, we are always right, or that our words, thoughts, motives, and actions are automatically pleasing to Him.

The Lord does not defend our sin because we are His people. He disciplines those whom He loves. Therefore let us be quick to examine ourselves, slow to justify ourselves, and eager to repent where repentance is needed. Let us never presume upon God’s name to defend what He condemns.

The Lord knows. The Lord sees. And that truth is either a comfort or a warning.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

What help is it to the body of Christ to invite guests on local shows or podcasts to share about themselves while never entering into the rich truths of Scripture? Why do some men play it so safe? Why can men of serious theological error or even a false teacher be platformed one week and a doctrinally sound preacher the next, yet no meaningful disagreement is ever explored and an appearance of shared faith and unity is promoted? Who benefits? Why are the questions so intentionally vague? Why is there no Gospel proclamation? Why is there no real discussion of Christ, who He is, and what He has accomplished? Why do the talking points center on the man rather than the Savior?

If we care about truth, our questions cannot remain superficial, subjective, or sentimental. They must be theological. They must arise from a desire for true worship. Questions that anyone can answer, heretics included, where there is no real possibility of a wrong answer, may appear to create unity, but they foster only a false unity.

The questions that deal honestly with Scripture, that expose a man’s beliefs and reveal the heart, are the very questions false teachers often refuse to face. Such questions strip away pretense, reveal error, and destroy the illusion of doctrinal neutrality.

Men who host programs where false teachers may feel comfortable and welcomed, while also inviting doctrinally sound teachers, yet carefully guide conversations away from areas of disagreement and toward themes about the men that give an appearance of unity and neutrality, show themselves undiscerning at best and unwilling to contend for truth at worst.

Those who love the truth do not fear discussions that delve deeply into Scripture and faithfully proclaim the Gospel.

Friend, be discerning of those who do not ask questions out of a genuine concern for truth but seek to create an appearance of unity where none exists. Truth necessarily distinguishes truth from error.

Consider the questions being asked. What do they lead toward, and what do they avoid? Do they preserve the appearance of unity by avoiding the beliefs, practices, and doctrines that would expose real and necessary differences? Do they reveal convictions grounded in Scripture, or a willingness to agree with everyone despite contradictory claims that cannot all be true?

Guided questions can be helpful, but they can also be intentionally crafted to avoid exposing falsehood and proclaiming truth. Such platforms may do great harm by creating the impression that false teachers and faithful teachers have far more in common than they actually do. False teachers often welcome such environments because they gain credibility and access to an audience that may lack discernment.

Does the platform glorify Christ or promote men? Are the questions centered upon Christ and His Gospel, or are they primarily concerned with what a man feels God is doing in him, how he believes he was called, and what he claims God is showing him?

Is Christ central? Is the Gospel central? Is the Word of God central?

If not, and if both truth and error are given the same platform while attention is directed toward personal experiences, impressions, and feelings, then the focus is no longer upon God but upon man. The individual is validated by his experiences rather than tested by Scripture.

Be careful of places where God is continually spoken of, yet the true purpose is to elevate men. Be careful of platforms where unity is prized more highly than truth.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

Sin loves its own blindness and darkness of mind, for it cannot bear the light of exposure and lashes out against any who bear such light. It seeks out weakness in those men so as to turn the light away from itself and call them hypocrites. Anything to shield itself from seeing itself rightly. If men cannot bear the light that comes forth from those who are justified by faith in Christ and yet still struggle against their remaining sin, how will they bear perfect holiness? They cannot stand in the light of truth and suppress it forever, so how do they think they shall stand before God in all His holiness?

They know not what grace and mercy it is now to hear those who come to them and plead with them to repent and trust in Christ alone, nor the terror of the Lord that awaits those who despise the truth and the holiness of God. Finding refuge among those in the world who love their own, they show themselves to be God’s enemies. And yet, in His grace, He will gather all His own from the world unto Himself.

You know not your own blindness. You know not your own wickedness, for your heart has deceived you, O man. Wicked in your thinking, you imagine yourself wise, yet you play the fool. Upright in your own estimation, you set yourself in opposition to the truth that would show you already condemned before a holy God and reveal the only hope for your soul in Christ Jesus. You despise the truth, and your self-justification heaps up greater condemnation.

The truth you heard and rejected, that most holy thing which you found offensive and vile, shall rise in judgment against you. Those who proclaimed the truth to you, who bore witness to it in their lives, and whom you slandered as members of Christ’s bride, shall stand as a testimony against you. Your many sins, which you neither see nor understand because you would have no part in hearing the truth that exposes your wicked heart and possesses the power to save you, shall ever be before you.

You shall not escape the howling and haunting of it as judgment rains down upon your head forever. You despise the messenger who fears for your soul today, yet the truth he proclaimed shall testify against you then. Your sin shall not burn out in your heart, nor shall genuine repentance come forth from your lips. The truth from which you fled shall be the truth you cannot escape, forever bearing witness against you under the righteous judgment of God.

Because men hate the light, they hide in darkness and sometimes that darkness calls itself light and gathers in places that are churches where Satan has his seat. Unregenerate men and false teachers soothe the conscience of the wicked and assure them of a salvation that has never touched their lives, and they exploit them for their own wicked purposes. They each gain from one another what they desire, thereby showing themselves enemies of the truth.

For you are a sinner. You can find refuge in the world for a time. You can find refuge in false light. You can assuage your own conscience with falsehood. You can suppress the truth only for so long. For it will rise up in judgment against you. Your sins will find you out. You cannot atone for them. You cannot earn your freedom. You are in bondage to sin, and you love it. It is by the grace of God alone that your wicked heart may be made new and brought to see its own wickedness and folly, that very folly which you once loved and now find repulsive.

Unless you find God beautiful and His Word true, you shall never see yourself rightly. Unless faithful ministers declare the whole counsel of God and His Word is rightly proclaimed to your dead heart, set in opposition to Him, you shall remain blind in your sin. The very words you find most offensive are often the words God is pleased to use to bring life to the dead.

But if, O wretched man, you hear and God is pleased to work within you, then what you once hated you shall find most beautiful. The God whom you despised you shall love. The truth that once offended you shall become the delight of your soul.

And when you discover within yourself that which remains offensive to Him, you shall surely put it to death. For now your heart has been changed. The Word of God, once resisted as faithful men proclaimed it, has become your desire and your delight. You no longer seek refuge in falsehood and darkness, but in Christ alone.

In Christ you find genuine love, not the perversion your heart once devised. He is beautiful in His glory, though you have not yet beheld Him fully. Yet behold Him you shall, either with great terror or with great rejoicing.

Play not the fool. But as those precious saints who have died in the faith, who encouraged the souls of fellow saints amidst the darkness and wickedness of men, having set their hope upon Christ and trusted in His kind providence, dear saint, play the man.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

The love of God reigning in the hearts of His children orders their affections rightly. Their loves, desires, and passions are set upon what God loves and set against what God hates. To the world, such love appears unloving. According to the world’s judgment, it is evil to hate what God hates and to love what God loves. Love must be redefined, affections distorted, and desires disordered before it can be called love by those who are opposed to God.

The world calls it love to affirm, celebrate, and stand alongside what is evil. Yet God calls His people to walk in love toward all, even toward those whose affections, desires, and passions are fixed upon the very things He hates. Such love is contrary to fallen human nature. It requires that a man be born again. His heart must be made new. His mind must continually be sanctified by the truth. The Spirit of God must dwell within him, so that his obedience is no longer mere pretense or reluctant duty, but the fruit of a new life with new affections and desires that glorify God.

The one whose loves were once disordered is made new and is being transformed. He now loves what he once hated and hates what he once loved, most especially the remaining sin within his own heart. The love God works within him produces rightly ordered affections. In loving others, he no longer judges according to his own desires or subjective feelings, but according to the Word of God, which speaks authoritatively concerning what is pure and impure, holy and defiled, sound and unsound, true and erroneous.

Let the heart that has found Christ most beautiful set itself continually upon Him. Let it guard itself from every temptation toward defilement, whether arising from inward corruption or from the pressures of a world that it is called to love, though not as the world loves.

Ordered affections will always expose disordered love. That which is most beautiful stands in contrast to that which is perverse, self-seeking, and devoted to its own comforts, happiness, and desires. Such things are not the love wrought by God in the hearts of His people. True love does not seek its own way. It considers others more significant than itself and is willing to suffer for the good of another when doing so glorifies God.

It is God who works in His people, conforming them more and more to the image of His Son. Therefore, the love He produces cannot but be rightly ordered, for its perfect demonstration has already been shown in Christ.

The world loves its own and seeks its own. This is not the love that God works. Much is called love that bears no resemblance to the love revealed in Scripture. The world loves whatever affirms, celebrates, and promotes its disordered passions set against God. Many who profess Christ know little of the love that calls sinners to repentance and faith, whereby those who are being saved have their affections and desires brought into right order.

The more we behold Christ, the more we love Him, and the more clearly we see. The less we look to Him, the more even the strongest saints may grow weary and faint in a world increasing in depravity, selfishness, self-love, and hatred toward God.

Remember the Lord, dear saint. Let your love abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that it may glorify God. Fear not the opposition of men toward that love which speaks according to the truth and demonstrates itself in obedience to God. The world calls such love hatred because it cannot comprehend it. Yet should God be pleased to grant repentance and faith, those who once despised this love will come to know it for themselves. Then they shall rejoice in that very love they once opposed, for they will behold it fully in Christ.

Let not your love be confused with that of the world, but let it be established in the mind by truth, rightly ordered in the heart, and demonstrated in the life and doctrine of the saint who bears the name of Christ before the world.

Written by: April J. Buchanan

The love of God reigning in the hearts of His children orders their affections rightly. Their loves, desires, and passions are set upon what God loves and set against what God hates. To the world, such love appears unloving. According to the world’s judgment, it is evil to hate what God hates and to love what God loves. Love must be redefined, affections distorted, and desires disordered before it can be called love by those who are opposed to God.

The world calls it love to affirm, celebrate, and stand alongside what is evil. Yet God calls His people to walk in love toward all, even toward those whose affections, desires, and passions are fixed upon the very things He hates. Such love is contrary to fallen human nature. It requires that a man be born again. His heart must be made new. His mind must continually be sanctified by the truth. The Spirit of God must dwell within him, so that his obedience is no longer mere pretense or reluctant duty, but the fruit of a new life with new affections and desires that glorify God.

The one whose loves were once disordered is made new and is being transformed. He now loves what he once hated and hates what he once loved, most especially the remaining sin within his own heart. The love God works within him produces rightly ordered affections. In loving others, he no longer judges according to his own desires or subjective feelings, but according to the Word of God, which speaks authoritatively concerning what is pure and impure, holy and defiled, sound and unsound, true and erroneous.

Let the heart that has found Christ most beautiful set itself continually upon Him. Let it guard itself from every temptation toward defilement, whether arising from inward corruption or from the pressures of a world that it is called to love, though not as the world loves.

Ordered affections will always expose disordered love. That which is most beautiful stands in contrast to that which is perverse, self-seeking, and devoted to its own comforts, happiness, and desires. Such things are not the love wrought by God in the hearts of His people. True love does not seek its own way. It considers others more significant than itself and is willing to suffer for the good of another when doing so glorifies God.

It is God who works in His people, conforming them more and more to the image of His Son. Therefore, the love He produces cannot but be rightly ordered, for its perfect demonstration has already been shown in Christ.

The world loves its own and seeks its own. This is not the love that God works. Much is called love that bears no resemblance to the love revealed in Scripture. The world loves whatever affirms, celebrates, and promotes its disordered passions set against God. Many who profess Christ know little of the love that calls sinners to repentance and faith, whereby those who are being saved have their affections and desires brought into right order.

The more we behold Christ, the more we love Him, and the more clearly we see. The less we look to Him, the more even the strongest saints may grow weary and faint in a world increasing in depravity, selfishness, self-love, and hatred toward God.

Remember the Lord, dear saint. Let your love abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that it may glorify God. Fear not the opposition of men toward that love which speaks according to the truth and demonstrates itself in obedience to God. The world calls such love hatred because it cannot comprehend it. Yet should God be pleased to grant repentance and faith, those who once despised this love will come to know it for themselves. Then they shall rejoice in that very love they once opposed, for they will behold it fully in Christ.

Let not your love be confused with that of the world, but let it be established in the mind by truth, rightly ordered in the heart, and demonstrated in the life and doctrine of the saint who bears the name of Christ before the world.