I'm back from my brief hiatus from blogging. I wish I could I say that it was a planned break, but I've just gotten behind. Several friends have been trying to get me to start twittering, but between blogging, Facebooking, and emailing, my technological dance card is full enough.

In Sunday's message I referenced a quote from John Calvin (poorly from memory) that I said I would post on the blog. It was from an interview with Michael Horton in this month's Christianity Today magazine, in which Horton contends that we need to once again let our lives and churches be driven by the gospel. Here's the quote with a little bit of context:

Paul calls the gospel "the power of God unto salvation," and I don't think he meant the power of God just unto conversion. The gospel remains the power of God unto salvation until we are glorified. Calvin once said we need the gospel preached to us every week, and the Lord's Supper to ratify that promise, because are partly unbelievers until we die.

Amen! Well said indeed. Hence, the point I was trying to make at the end of the message on Sunday when I said that I have failed you as a teacher if you leave thinking, "This is what I need to DO..." (in terms of earning and/or keeping my salvation through my performance), rather than the emphasis being on what Jesus has DONE. Aren't you glad that along with being saved by grace, we're also kept by grace. . . with all of it being accomplished by Christ in spite of us, not because of us?

I certainly am.