Safe In This World
This book is a good expostion of the prayer that forms part of the Farewell Discourse. It contains much needed insight and exhortation.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones was the Westminster Chapel preacher for more than 30 years. It was against 'ecumenism' that Lloyd-Jones stood primarily. A valuable contribution, from a point of view that expounding the text brought honor to God, regardless of his personal views. He is often regarded as one of the most outstanding preachers of the 20th Century.
Says MLJ:
'Our Security In God', Chapter 4, John 17:1-5
'This is the first thing we have to take hold of: salvation is entirely the idea of God. It emanates from and has its origin in God the Father. Now this is a staggering thought! So often, you and I feel we have to placate God because of sin, our sin in us, and sin in the world. We tend to think of God as being opposed and antagonistic to us, and therefore we are always thinking of Him as someone we have to appease.
This is a complete fallacy. It is absolutely foreign to biblical teaching. Salvation has all originated in the mind of God - it is God's own purpose. Rather, the Bible teaches us that 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.' 2 Corinthians 5:19
But we go from that to this further point. It is not only God's idea - we see here that it has been perfectly planned from the very beginning to the very end. God, says Paul in Romans 3, must find a way of salvation which enables Him at one and the same time to be just, and the justifier of the ungodly. Here we come to something that is the source of the deepest assurance and consolation that any Christian person can ever know in this world of time.
What could be more reassuring than knowing that there is nothing contingent about this salvation, nothing accidental, nothing that needs modification? It is a perfect plan.'
