Several years ago Larry King, the well-known talk show host, was asked who he would like to interview if he had his pick from all of history. His answer was Jesus Christ. The questioner paused and said, “What is the one question you would like to ask Him?” Larry King answered, “I would ask Him if He indeed was virgin born, because the answer to that would define history for me.”
In one sense, Larry King was right. Because the birth of Jesus Christ is the key which unlocks human history. If Jesus is who the Bible says that He is, then His life and work does indeed define history.
Each December people throughout the world will begin to focus on Christmas. Images of Mary and Joseph with a little baby will appear on greeting cards, television ads and in newspapers. In the West, at least, thoughts will turn to that scene in Bethlehem’s stable more that at any other time in the year.
Very few people, however, will stop to consider just who it is who was born there 2000 years ago. Not many will seriously entertain Larry King’s question: “Was Jesus born of a virgin?”
Matthew and Luke give us a record of the birth of Jesus. Both describe the natural circumstances, supernatural cause, and the eternal significance of what took place. When Mary turned up pregnant before their wedding day, Joseph her promised husband, must have been crushed. Matthew says that, rather than being vindictive, he did not want “to make her a public example” but thought to “put her away secretly” (Matthew 1:19).
The birth of Jesus Christ is the key which unlocks human history.
Only after an angel appeared to him and assured him that the child within her had been miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit did he change his mind. On that same occasion the angel also told Joseph that the child would be a boy and that his name would be “Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Matthew explains all of this by adding, “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us’” (1:23).
Jesus means “Savior” and he was given this name to signify his mission of saving his people from sin. Some people live as if they no longer believe in the reality of sin that separates all of us from God. Yet intuitively everyone knows that things are not the way that they are supposed to be. Consequently, people look for relief—for salvation—from all kinds of sources, including pleasure, relationships, wealth, and knowledge. But as the great philosopher and church father, Augustine, prayed, “O, Lord, our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”
The great American theologian of the twentieth century, J. Gresham Machen said, “From the beginning Christianity was the religion of the broken heart; it is based on the conviction that there is an awful gulf between man and God which none but God can bridge.” God has done exactly that through the coming of Jesus Christ.
In Christ, God has come to be “with us.” One of the most staggering truths that the Bible reveals to us is that the baby who was born to Mary is God in flesh. Because God is for us, He came to be with us. All that Jesus accomplished while he was on earth was in fulfillment of his mission to bring about salvation for his people.
This explains his life of humble obedience to the law of God. That is what the law requires of us. It also explains his death on the cross. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and all of us deserve to be paid in that currency. Yet, Jesus, acting as our representative and substitute, lived and died to “save his people from their sin.” On the cross he endured the penalty pronounced against sin and secured a just pardon for everyone who trusts in Him.
This is the good news of Christmas. The virgin-born baby is the Savior of the world. This is great news for everyone who knows that he is a sinner and in need of a Savior. Jesus came into the world to rescue fallen men and women and He has successfully done so by His life, death, and resurrection.
All that Jesus accomplished comes to benefit people when they turn away from their lives of self-sufficiency and trust him as Lord and Savior.
This great news is summarized in one of the best-known statements in the Bible. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
The birth of Jesus Christ is a display of God’s great love for us. All that Jesus accomplished comes to benefit people when they turn away from their lives of self-sufficiency and trust him as Lord and Savior.
Faith is the key that links all that Jesus did two thousand years to people today. The Apostle Paul writes, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
Trust in the Savior who was born. God sent him into the world to rescue people like you and me.

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In Volume 9 of The Works of John Owen, the renowned theologian and pastor talks about restraining and renewing grace. Restraining grace is that work of God that keeps people in “fear of shame, danger, death, and hell.” It is similar to what God told Abimelech in Genesis 20:6, “it was I who kept you from sinning against me.”

Renewing grace, on the other hand, “is faith and love,—faith working by love. A man who hath a spiritual understanding may examine himself, and find under what conduct he is.”[1]

The question for today’s post is simply this: Are you merely under the influence of restraining grace or have you experienced the power and hope of renewing grace? 

Restraining Grace

True, in the context of our Nation’s current cultural crisis, we see the walls of restraining grace crumbling all around us. Sins committed today were similarly, perhaps, committed 100 years ago. The difference is that today they are (literally) paraded down main street while in the last century they were done in secret. 

Of course, as technology has increased and the boldness of wicked men and women has increased, new sins are participated in today that sinners of past generations could not have even fully fathomed. 

Yet, in the mercy of God, restraining grace, at least some measure of it, still prevails in many places. That is, as wicked as our current culture is, it is not as wicked as it could possibly be. And there are many places around the country and the world where people, with the moral law of God upon their hearts and consciences (Romans 2:15), seek to try to live some sort of outwardly respectable life. 

In the midst of declining morality, there remain people who “by nature do what the law requires” (Romans 2:14). Paul does not mean they actually “keep” the moral law of God, but that there are times when it is clear their Imago Dei is showing. Their efforts at morality show that they know, at least in part, that God requires something of them. 

Renewing Grace

This circles us back to the point of today’s post. Restraining grace is not enough for a person to have true peace with God. Restraining grace may allow a person in their own sinfulness to suppress their guilt and feel worthy of heaven, but it will not bring a person to savingly surrender to our Lord Jesus Christ. 

For that, we need renewing grace. We need the grace of Ezekiel 36:25-27 whereby God does not merely “keep us form sinning” but goes beyond that to remove our hearts of stone and replace them with a heart of flesh. This is renewing grace. Grace that produces in us a total change. We must be born again. 

How do you know you’re born again? Because you love Christ. You believe on Christ. You walk with Christ. You have been transformed by the power of God in the gospel. You obey from the heart (cf. Rom. 6:17). His will becomes more important than your own. You seek to walk the ancient paths He has set before you (cf. Jer. 6:16).

This is the difference between restraining grace and renewing grace. Restraining grace keeps you from sin out of fear of cultural ramifications. Renewing grace keeps you from sin out of fear of God. The desire of the heart moves from seeking conformity to a standard of self or society to seeking conformity to the standard of God. 

Those under the influence of restraining grace may go to great lengths to justify themselves. They may regularly attend church. They may dabble in philanthropy. They may avoid more of the egregious sins so prevalent today. 

But it is only those under the sovereign influence of renewing grace who are savingly and lastingly converted to Christ. 

Examine Yourself

The Bible instructs us to examine ourselves (cf. 2 Cor. 13:5). We would do well to consider Owen’s categories, which I find to be biblical, and make serious effort today to contemplate whether we are under the control of restraining or renewing grace. 

If you find yourself only under the power of restraint, then I remind you of the words of that old hymn…

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide.What can avail to wash it away?Look! There is flowing a Crimson Tide,Brighter than snow you may be today.

Grace, grace, God’s grace,Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;Grace, grace, God’s grace,Grace that is greater than all our sin.

Look to Christ today and find in Him, “wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

[1] John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 9 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 385.

“Merciful LORD, pardon all my sins of this day, week, year, all the sins of my life, sins of early, middle, & advanced years, of omission & commission, of morose, peevish & angry tempers, of lip, life & walk, of hard-heartedness, unbelief, presumption, pride, of unfaithfulness to the souls of men, of want of bold decision in the cause of Christ, of deficiency in outspoken zeal for his glory, of bringing dishonour upon thy great name, of deception, injustice, untruthfulness in my dealings with others…”[1]

This is the beginning of a Puritan prayer entitled SINS. As I preached through the Lord’s Prayer, I came to Matthew 6:12, “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Jesus links God’s forgiving us and our forgiving others. When we forgive others we can know that it does not merit God’s forgiving us, for salvation and forgiveness is by grace alone. The emphasis is on forgiveness we receive, due to the work of Christ. When we grasp God’s forgiveness, then we are able to forgive others. Forgiving others reveals that we understand how gracious and merciful God has been to us. We cannot be like the unmerciful servant (Matt. 18:21-35), though he was forgiven much, he would not forgive the one who owed him so little. This parable is a good commentary of 6:12. I am not implying that forgiving others who wrong you is easy, “the flesh lusts against the spirit”. I believe this is one reason Jesus adds verses 14-15 immediately after the Lord’s Prayer: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” This is the only petition reiterated from the Lord’s Prayer. I believe He reemphasizes forgiveness because He knows we are prone not to forgive. We must remember how often we have sinned against God, and yet He has forgiven us. No one has ever sinned against us as much, so how can we not willingly forgive them? A Christian must forgive, we cannot withhold forgiveness or be bitter in our hearts toward others. Let us demonstrate God’s forgiveness by forgiving others. Christ demonstrated forgiveness as He hung on the Cross. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” This IS Amazing Grace! As often stated: “men of grace should above all be gracious.”

[1] (Puritan Prayer SINS, used with permission of Banner of Truth)