God in Christ
Our substitute, then, who took our place and died our death on the cross, was neither Christ alone (since that would make him a third party thrust in between God and us), nor God alone (since that would undermine the historical incarnation), but God in Christ, who was truly and fully both God and man and who on that account was uniquely qualified to represent both God and man and to mediate between them. If we speak only of Christ suffering and dying, we overlook the initiative of the Father. If we speak only of God suffering and dying, we overlook the mediation of the Son. The New Testament authors never attribute the atonement either to Christ in such a way as to disassociate him from the Father, or to God in such a way as to dispense with Christ, but rather to God and Christ, or to God acting in and through Christ with his whole-hearted concurrence.
John Stott, The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1986, 2006), p. 156.
Pleading Against Spiritual Suicide
Yesterday at church, we heard a very powerful sermon preached by a long-time friend of the church, Pastor Wes Pastor. (yes, apparently, his last name is Pastor!). In a word, it was convicting. He spoke on one of my favorite passages of Scripture — 2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2, in a sermon that was titled Pleading Against Spiritual Suicide. I highly recommend y’all have a listen!
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. [2] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling [3] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6:1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
Are You Running out of Time?
“I want a real chaplain who believes in a real God and a real hell! …I need answers! And all your questions and uncertainties are only making things worst. I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness, because I am running out of time!”
(Feed readers, please visit this post to see the video.
fromER - Season 14, Episode 13 “Atonement”)
No, There is None Righteous
I ran across an old box of letters
While I was bagging up some clothes for Goodwill
You know I had to laugh that the same old struggles
That plagued me then are plaguing me still
I know the road is long from the ground to glory
But a boy can hope he’s getting some place
But you see, I’m running from the very clothes I’m wearing
And dressed like this I’m fit for the chaseNo, there is none righteous
Not one who understands
There is none who seek God
No not one, no not oneI am thankful that I’m incapable
Of doing any good on my own‘Cause we’re all stillborn and dead in our transgressions
We’re shackled up to the sin we hold so dear
So what part can I play in the work of redemption
I can’t refuse, I cannot add a thing‘Cause I am just like Lazarus and I can hear your voice
I stand and rub my eyes and walk to You
Because I have no choiceI am thankful that I’m incapable
Of doing any good on my own
I’m so thankful that I’m incapable
Of doing any good on my ownIt’s by grace I have been saved
Through faith that’s not my own
It is the gift of God and not by works
Lest anyone should boast
(Lyrics from the song “Thankful” by Caedmon’s Call, on the album 40 Acres, 1999)
How Fitting it is That Christ Should Suffer
This morning, Dr. Jim Orrick spoke at Immanuel Baptist Church on Hebrews 2:10-18 in a message that was a very timely and appropriate one for what the church is currently going through. There are a couple pastors of Immanuel & their families who are going through serious medical crises, and would covet your prayers. (For privacy’s sake, please contact Immanuel directly for details on this)
Dr. Orrick spoke about how it was fitting for Jesus to be our Messiah because He suffered as human being, and so, we thus fit together with Christ, because He who suffered and was tempted was indeed just like us — human in every way and yet Divine also. Orrick’s main exposition focused on 3 points explaining why it was fitting for God to accomplish our redemption through Christ Jesus:
- Christ came to be head of a suffering family
- Christ came to be the Savior of dying human beings
- Christ came to be High Priest of a sinful people
I wish I could share with you the mp3 to this powerful sermon, but take a look at Hebrews 2 yourself and consider for yourself have fitting and amazing God’s love towards us truly is!
Please pray for Immanuel in this time of pain and suffering. I am seeking the Lord’s guidance in attending Immanuel regularly and hopefully seek membership soon, so please pray for the Lord’s guidance in this. As well, out of a servant heart to help out at Immanuel, I’ve talked to their leadership about helping to redesign their website (which is currently down); pray for a humble servant attitude as a look into this area to serve in.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
The Mysterious Nature of Regeneration
“I know very well when, but hardly how, the final step was taken. I was driven to Whipsnade one sunny morning. When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did. Yet I had not exactly spent the journey in thought. Nor in great emotion”
-C. S. Lewis. Surprised by Joy (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1955), p. 237
As quoted by Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994 [ed.2007)], p. 702 footnote.
Redemption through the Promised Seed
Abraham’s theological horizon must be taken more seriously into account. The initiative of the divine grace with Abraham must be recalled. The covenant relation as one of confirmed promise must be understood. Isaac must be seen not merely as Abraham’s son whom he loves, but as his only son (Genesis 22:2); not only the son naturally, but the only son before God, the only son of the promise: “… in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Genesis 21:12. The command is not a bare command to a certain man to go kill his son. The command is to Abraham to offer up the promised seed as a burnt-offering in a particular place in the land of promise. The seed which God has miraculously given is to be proclaimed by God’s judgment. The covenant stands of falls in the seed. Only in and through the offering of the seed of promise is Abraham’s worship acceptable to God. Redemption is through the seed of the promise, and this is what Abraham seeks.
Edmund P. Clowney — Preaching and Biblical Theology, pg.85.
3:16
A twenty-six-word parade of hope: beginning with God, ending with life, and urging us to do the same. Brief enough to write on a napkin or memorize in a moment, yet solid enough to weather two thousand years of storms and questions. If you know nothing of the Bible, start here. If you know everything in the Bible, return here. We all need the reminder. The heart of the human problem is the heart of the human. And God’s treatment is prescribed in John 3:16.
He loves.
He gave.
We believe.
We live.
He loves.
God loves you because he chooses to do so. “God wasn’t attracted to you and didn’t choose you because you were big and important… He did it out of sheer love…” (Deut. 7:7-8, MSG). God’s love for you depends on his goodness, not yours. And since he is totally good, you are absolutely loved. You don’t need to win his love, you already have it. And since you can’t win it, you can’t lose it. He will love you forever. You may step outside of his will, but never his love. Mark it down. He loves you. So much, in fact, that…
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Three dollars worth of gospel
“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of gospel, please. Not too much – just enough to make me happy, but not so much that I get addicted. I don’t want so much gospel that I learn to really hate covetousness and lust. I certainly don’t want so much that I start to love my enemies, cherish self-denial, and contemplate missionary service in some alien culture. I want ecstasy, not repentance; I want transcendence, not transformation. I would like to be cherished by some nice, forgiving, broad-minded people, but I myself don’t want to love those from different races – especially if they smell. I would like enough gospel to make my family secure and my children well behaved, but not so much that I find my ambitions redirected or my giving too greatly enlarged. I would like about three dollars worth of the gospel, please.”
(D. A. Carson - Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippians. pp. 12-13)
(HT: Justin Taylor)
The Atonement in Focus
The latest (summer) issue of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology has just been published and is focusing on the ever important doctrine of the atonement – the primary doctrine which has been under attack in evangelicalism.
Fellow Canadian Dr. Stephen J. Wellum (professor of Christian Theology), in the opening editorial writes,
“…in the evangelical church today we are in danger of downplaying and even distorting the true meaning and signifi cance of the cross.
A number of examples could be given to demonstrate this last observation, but I want to focus on one disconcerting trend that is increasingly occurring in evangelical theology, namely, an effort to reinterpret the cross in non-substitutionary terms.”
Continue reading Wellum’s article “Articulating, Defending, and Proclaiming Christ our Substitute”.
Inescapable Necessity, Radical Mercy
“Grace was getting clearer as our sin and God’s wrath closed in. I’m not sure when or where, but somewhere along the way in the recent journey of youth ministry and the American church in general, the reality of the coming wrath of God slipped out of our thinking about the cross of Christ. About that same time we lost our sense of desperate need, opting instead for a rosier view of ourselves than God’s holiness will allow and embracing the cross as a really wonderful gesture, not life and breath and peace and everything. But in this night both the mercy and judgment of God hung in equal measure, the one making much of the other as we lifted the Cup and considered it’s mandate for and from our lives.”
Louie Giglio - on preaching about the Cup from which we must all drink, one which Jesus Himself could not let pass Him by though it contained the most horrific and crushing agony anyone could ever imagine.
God Is for Us: Christ Obeyed and Died
John Piper for the last year or so has been studying and writing a defence of the doctrine of justification as a response to N. T. Wright and objection to the New Perspective on Paul. Dr. Piper just posted an excerpt from the conclusion of his book “The Future of Justification“, which will be relased this November:
Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. All the punishment required of us because of our sin, Christ endured for us on the cross. And all the obedience that God required of us, that he, as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us in his perfect obedience to God.
This punishment and this obedience (not all obedience) is completed and past. It can never change. Our union with Christ and the enjoyment of these benefits is secure forever. Through faith alone, God establishes our union with Christ. This union will never fail, because in Christ, God is for us as an omnipotent Father who sustains our faith and works all things together for our everlasting good. The one and only instrument through which God preserves our union with Christ is faith in Christ—the purely receiving act of the soul.
On a related note, the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) at its General Assembly just adopted the recommendations of the Federal Vision Committee. The committee report is available here (PDF). An MP3 of the Federal Vision Committee Discussion: mp3 (20 MB).
Grace - spoken word
Grace
Unmerited favor toward those who deserve wrath.
Unmerited favor toward those who because of sin wouldn’t desire to ask
Unmerited but given, inherited our sinning
Grace
Is salvation from predestination, Christ gave his life to change our
destination
Is good health, when we deserve bad
It is unmerited favor to those who deserve wrath.
Is good relationships with God and with others
Is the reason we call each other brothers.
Grace forgets mistakes and gives new air to breathe
It the reason we sing, we pray and we read
Grace is the warm breeze when it’s cold and the cool breeze when it’s hot
Grace would be everything but some things it’s not
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Are you sure of your Salvation?
Nathan Williams on assurance:
One of the more interesting aspects of assurance of salvation is the difference in the way Scripture tells us to evaluate the salvation of those around us and the way we evaluate our own salvation. Ultimately, it is impossible to be sure of the salvation of another. However, we do have certain criteria from Scripture with which to assess whether or not spiritual life exists in someone else. In Matthew 7:17-18 Jesus tells us that good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit. In some ways it is quite simple to evaluate the spiritual state of another person. Good fruit means you are looking at a good tree and bad fruit means you are looking at a bad tree. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that we were created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of performing good works. Again, we can look at the life of someone claiming to be a Christian and look at what the Bible considers good works and see if their life is producing good works. The basic principle is simple and vital, but because so much is based on internal motivation, it is ultimately impossible to know for certain the spiritual state of another.
Continue reading “Assurance” @ Pulpit Magazine.
Fiery Floods of the Fierceness
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. — That world of misery, that take of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell’s wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
He Hung
I raise my head the sky to see
Cloaked dark, the clouds, they beckon me
My thrashing heart beats deafeninglySharp iron holds these aching limbs
The mocking crowd keeps tight the dim
Curses wrought, hate bought by whimHere is Christ, the Chosen One!
Hanging there, dies God’s own Son!
Harshly forgot I too am undoneRacked with pain, I do not deny
This hellbent urge to turn and cry
At furrowed brow, yet unwavering eyeScreaming at his lowered head
I demand that he displace my stead
Without a word life crushes instead‘cross curs-ed ground another wails
Why do you tarry, he now assails
It seems we are both of no availGlancing up, he knows my all, ‘neath heavy eyes
No condemnation toward me flies
Sins once done become blood-bought liesRolling now, the black horizon nears
I am at the end, here die my fears
A sudden flush and this slow mind clearsDo you not fear God, I defend
What has he done to come to this end?
Was it not our guilt that killed us friend?Straining now with rushed immediacy
My king, please now remember me
I always have, this mercy’s freeThis hilltop’s grasp is no longer glared
Now all at once my life was spared
Glory be, this is how a sinner faredWhen the darkness came and danced with glee
It wasted quick, then death did flee
For he, my King, he hung for me
Let the battle begin
I will always remember this day and age in the future, when I look back at my (pre-) seminarian life. When I consider what battles I am facing in evangelicalism right now, I shiver at the mere thought of the war we are in right now. I gulp and swallow hard at what Paul wrote to his young pastor-disciple Timothy a long time ago:
“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (1 Tim. 4:3-4)
Unfortunately, that time has come again (though some would say it’s always been here). I have not even started my seminary education yet, and already there is so much in Christianity being questioned that I never, ever would think would be doubted. As John MacArthur has continually noted, the battleground in the church will always be centered around truth. It is still the same today on April 25, 2007.
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We have sinned
Holy and righteous God,
We confess that like Isaiah, we are a people of unclean lips. But it is not only unclean lips we possess. We are people with unclean hands and unclean hearts. We have broken your law times without number, and are guilty of pride, unbelief, self-centeredness and idolatry. Affect our hearts with the severity of our sin and the glory of your righteousness as we now acknowledge our sins in your holy presence.
We have had other gods before you.
We have worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator.
We have sought satisfaction in this world’s pleasures rather than in You.
We have loved to praise our own glory more than yours.
We have taken your name in vain.
We have prayed religious prayers to impress others.
We have uttered your name countless times without reverence or love.
We have listened to others use your name in vain without grieving.
We have murdered in our hearts.
We have often destroyed our neighbor with our tongues.
We have been quick to uncharitably judge others.
We have considered revenge when we were sinned against.
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Crushed for our Iniquities
The following is an excerpt from the book “Pierced for our Transgressions“, a landmark book that’s just been published in defence of the glorious doctrine of penal substionary atonement. (I briefly mentioned it here.) For those in North America wanting to get ahold of a copy, Crossway Books will be publishing it–due out in November 2007.
Part One: Making the Case
Extract from …
1. INTRODUCTION
Setting the scene
The doctrine of penal substitution states that God gave himself in the person of his Son to suffer instead of us the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for sin.
This understanding of the cross of Christ stands at the very heart of the gospel. There is a captivating beauty in the sacrificial love of a God who gave himself for his people. It is this that first draws many believers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and this that will draw us to him when he returns on the last day to vindicate his name and welcome his people into his eternal kingdom. That the Lord Jesus Christ died for us – a shameful death, bearing our curse, enduring our pain, suffering the wrath of his own Father in our place – has been the wellspring of the hope of countless Christians throughout the ages.
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Isaiah 53: The Suffering Servant
- Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? - For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him. - He was despised and rejected by people.
He was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering.
He was despised like one from whom people turn their faces,
and we didn’t consider him to be worth anything. - Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted. - But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed. - We all went astray like sheep,
Each going his own way;
And the LORD visited upon him
The guilt of all of us. - Ill-treated and afflicted,
he never opened his mouth,
like a lamb led to the slaughter-house,
like a sheep dumb before its shearers
he never opened his mouth. - He was led away after an unjust trial –
but who even cared?
Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living;
because of the rebellion of his own people he was wounded. - They made His grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man at His death,
although He had done no violence
and had not spoken deceitfully. - Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. - He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities. - And so I will give him a place of honor,
a place among the great and powerful.
He willingly gave his life
and shared the fate of evil men.
He took the place of many sinners
and prayed that they might be forgiven.
(KJV:1; ESV:2; GW:3; NRSV:4; NLT:5; NJPS:6; NJB:7; NET:8; HCSB:9; TNIV: 10; NKJV:11; TEV/GNB:12)
(HT: Better Bibles Blog)
The Father’s wrath against us
The following is Pastor John Piper’s Foreword to the book “Pierced for our Transgressions“. It is a powerful introduction to what should be a soul-convicting book:
FOREWORD
Out of the Jewish leadership of Jesus’ day had risen teachers of the law who did not know what the law meant. Jesus found himself saying things like ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?’ ( John 3:10 ESV). Some of the teachers had lost all sense of biblical proportion, ‘straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!’ (Matt 23:24 ESV). And as they lost their bearings, they came under Jesus’ most serious charge: ‘You have made void the word of God’ (Matt 15:6 ESV).
Emotionally, Jesus’ response was a sinless combination of grief and anger. ‘He looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart’ (Mark 3:5 ESV). Why both anger and grief? The anger was because people were being hurt – eternally. These teachers were supposed to know what the word of God meant, but instead Jesus said they were ‘like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it’ (Luke 11:44 ESV). This made Jesus angry. Their job was to teach what God had said. Instead, they were blind guides and were leading others with them into the ditch. Jesus loved people. Therefore, he was angry with professional teachers who imperilled people with biblical blunders.
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Testimony Tuesday
Today is “Testimony Tuesday“. Initiated by world renowned Reformed blogger Tim Challies, it is a day to share your personal testimony about how you came into relationship with Christ;-) Check out Challies’ post that has links to the testimony of bloggers around the world, including myself! (Email him if you want your testimony to be linked on that post.)
If you’ve been reading my blog, I just concluded a series with my personal testimony titled “Shaped by the Cross” (which started with Part 1 here). You can download a PDF of my full testimony here.
Redeemer, Savior, Friend
I know you had me on your mind,
When you climbed up on that hill,
For you saw me with eternal eye,
While I was yet in sin,
Redeemer, savior, friend.
By the stripes upon your battered back,
By the thorns that pierced your brow,
And every nail drove deep through guiltless hands,
Showed that your love has no end,
Redeemer, Savior, Friend.
Redeemer redeem my heart again,
Savior come and shelter me from sin,
You’re familiar with my weakness,
Devoted to the end,
Redeemer, Savior, Friend
The grace you pour upon my life,
Will return to you in praise,
And I’ll gladly lay down all my crowns,
For the name by which am saved,
Redeemer, Savior, Friend.
