real christian

An interesting post by Doug Wilson:

The words of grace that surround this Table of grace are glorious words. The great Augustine once said that if God gave what He commanded, He could command whatever He wanted.

This Table has conditions—the unholy are not welcome. This Table contains a promise—the unholy are most welcome. Scripture frequently assigns conditions to us. If we will do this, He will do that. But Scripture in other places frequently teaches us that our fulfillment of such a condition is the very thing promised.

In one place we are told that true repentance is the condition of the promise (2 Chron. 6: 36-39; Joel 2:15-19). In another place we are told that our true repentance is the very thing promised (Eze. 36:26). What are we to make of this?

What this means is that if you come to God in true evangelical faith, if you come to Him with humility of heart, you are invited to apprehend every conditional promise in the Bible, though you have met none of those conditions, because you have come in the name of the one who met all of them, the Lord Jesus Himself. Now I just used the phrase true evangelical faith. What about that condition? That condition also is a gift from God, lest any should boast. Jesus was the only one with true evangelical faith. Jesus was the only Christian who ever lived—and so it is that the only true taunt of the unbelievers is the only true hope of believers. This is why we must take refuge in Him.

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.