Read the rest here.

Kasper Ilaug had been sitting in his cabin on Norway’s Storoya Island when a friend contacted him to say that something terrible had happened following the bomb blast in Oslo and that he must use a nearby boat to help rescue people from Utoeya.

‘I thought he was joking with me,’ he said.

But determined to do what he could, he grabbed his iPad, mobile and put on a bright yellow jacket with a red helmet and ran down to and 18ft fishing boat before heading off in the direction of Utoeya island, north west of Oslo.

Within minutes he had reached the shore and spotted a number of children hiding behind the rocks and crouching behind trees.

‘We saw some youngsters laying there and waving to us. They were terrified,’ he said. Most of them, dressed in nothing but bathing suits, were shivering from the cold and quickly clambered into the boat.

‘I then got this text message from one of my friends that said there’s a lunatic out there shooting people,’ he told CNN news.

Making three trips in total, at one point he spotted a group of youngsters behind some rocks.

‘I tried to wave to them and to get their attention, but I didn’t get a reponse. I thought maybe they are still in shock or laying behind that rock for shelter.’

However he soon realised they had been killed by the suspected gunman Anders Breivik, 32, who had been on a rampage, calling over his victims before opening fire on them.

Breivik killed 84 people at the summer political youth camp which was organised by the country’s leading Labour Party.

Victims described how they could hear his boots crunching on the ground as he sought out his victims and wearing what appeared to be a police uniform.

Mr Ilaug said several of the people he rescued told him that a policeman has opened fire on them.

‘I think I made three trips, they were so grateful. One girl started crying.

‘We’re just 4.7 million people. Nothing much happens here. Even in catastrophic situation like this, we keep calm.

‘I’m just an ordinary Norwegian people. I expect that other Norwegians would do the same thing for me in a similar situation.’

Of course, we have not received a phone call.  Rather God has spoken to us in His Word.  The situation of lost people is as desperate at that of those on the island in Norway. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. The wages of sin is death. And not everyone who thinks he or she is going to Heaven is.

The Good News has been entrusted to us.  We have a mission.

Sure the guy has a gun.  Yet, as Luther contended, the mission is worth the risk!  Don’t get sidetracked with petty issues. Let’s get in our boats and go.

I believe that God,

because of Christ’s atonement,

will never hold against me

any of my sins

nor my sinful nature

which I need to struggle against all my life.

Rather, in his grace

God grants me the righteousness of Christ

to free me forever from judgment.

Moses emerges with God’s Ten Commandments, a set of requirements that people have to fulfill not in order to get rescued by God from slavery, but because they have been rescued.

Stated succinctly, the imperative of the Christian life (be godly) follows the indicative (we have been freed from sin).

HT: Z

Q. 21 – What is true faith?

A. True faith is

not only a knowledge and conviction

that everything God reveals in his Word is true;

it is also a deep-rooted assurance,

created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel,

that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ,

not only others, but I too,

have had my sins forgiven,

have been made forever right with God,

had have been granted salvation.

If you asked me, “What is your biggest fear as a pastor?”  The answer would be easy.

I fear for people in our flock who think they are Christians when they are not.  I fear for those who have false assurance about their salvation.

Stating it baldly, some believe they are headed for heaven and the reality is that they are destined for hell.

That some have false assurance is a fact.  The Bible teaches that there are a group of people who think they are Christians, when in fact they are not.  Their faith is dead (James 2:17); their calling and election is not sure (2 Peter 1:10).  On the last day, Jesus will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you (Matthew 7:21-23).

When some, who think they are Christians, find out that they are not, and that it is too late – – this will be the most terrible moment ever faced in human history.

If you have any questions about this, by all means talk to a mature believer soon.  For more on the Gospel, see here.

. . . I said, “Do you want to know what you are saved from? In a word, you are saved from God.” They just gasped and to this day when I attend that convention people come up to me and say, “I had never thought of that until I heard your message.” It is God who saves people from God because his wrath is stored up against the day of wrath, and he most certainly will demonstrate, as he has demonstrated his love toward us “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  (Commentary on Romans, 161, emphasis added).

Sproule references Romans 5:8 in making his point, but John 3:36 also comes to mind:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36).

In true repentance there is no rationalization.  There is no attempt to minimize guilt.  There is no attempt at self-justification, which is the human tendency (Commentary on Romans, 82).

You and I follow along as the Romans lead Jesus away to the hill called Golgotha – - “Place of a Skull.” They nail His quivering flesh onto a cross, then raise it and slam it on the ground.

From all around us in the throng of onlookers, the verbal abuse continues. Those passing by wag their heads and say, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” The chief priests and the scribes and the elders echo the mockery: “He saved others; he cannot save himself.

Make no mistake: Jesus can descend from the cross and save Himself at any moment.  It isn’t the nails that keep Him there.  What keeps Him there is what placed Him there – - His passion to do the will of His Father, and His love for sinners like you and me.

Without their knowing it, the mocking words these onlookers utter do in fact reveal the uniqueness of the Savior’s death and why it mattered.  In their spiritual blindness they in effect express sublime spiritual truths. For Jesus cannot save both Himself and save you and me. It’s precisely because He refused to save Himself that He’s able to save others.

It would be necessary for Him to die even if it were for your sin alone or my sin alone. That’s why you and I are fully responsible for this tragic death. As John Stott wisely observed, “Until you see the cross as that which is done by you, you will never appreciate that it is done for you.”

Luther said that we all carry in our pockets His very nails. Are you aware of those nails in your possession?