Despite currently being a member of a non-denominational church, I have attended Baptist churches my entire life. As a Baptist, celebrating Lent is something we did not do. I don't remember how old I was when the practice was first brought to my attention, but I do remember wondering what chocolate, or caffeine, or pop (that's "soda" for you Southerners) had to do with Easter.
This past Christmas, I was given a renewed interest in the Advent, not in the traditional practices but in the setting a part of each day to focus on the upcoming holiday and why it is celebrated. So, when I read an article by Nancy Leigh DeMoss about using the Lenten season to set aside time to prepare for Easter, I thought it was an interesting idea.
This weekend I was away at a conference and spent some time at Barnes & Noble (What could possibly be more fun?). While browsing the shelves, I came across this book by John Piper. (You can actually download the book from his website.)
So, for the next fifty days...which will take me right to Easter...I will be borrowing the practice of Lent, and tweaking it a little, by reading "...fifty reasons. Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes - in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners in sending his Son to die?"
Reason #1 - To Absorb the Wrath of God
ReplyDelete"If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice."
"The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God's wrath is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn."
"We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and justice of his wrath against us."
Reason #2 - To Please His Heavenly Father
ReplyDelete"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities....All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:4-6
"This explains the paradox of the New Testament. One the one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God's wrath because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ's suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father."
"Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of God! ... For our sake God did the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his own Son - the one whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it.
Reason #3 - To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected
ReplyDelete"...with each new trial he learned in practice - and in pain - what it means to obey."
"His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God. It also fulfilled his true humanity and made him able to call us brothers and sisters."
Reason #4 - To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead
ReplyDelete"The death of Christ did not merely precede his resurrection - it was the price that obtained it."
"When the Bible speaks of the blood of Jesus, it refers to his death. No salvation would be accomplished by the mere bleeding of Jesus. His bleeding to death is what makes his blood-shedding crucial."
"The wrath of God was satisfied with the suffering and death of Jesus. The holy curse against sin was fully absorbed. The obedience of Christ was completed to the fullest measure. The price of forgiveness was totally paid. The righteousness of God was completely vindicated. All that was left to accomplish was the public declaration of God's endorsement. This he gave by raising Jesus from the dead."
Reason #5 - To Show the Wealth of God's Love and Grace for Sinners
ReplyDelete"The measure of God's love for us is shown by two things. One is the degree of his sacrifice in saving us from the penalty of our sin. The other is the degree of unworthiness that we had when he saved us."
"There is only one explanation for God's sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is "the riches of his grace" (Ephesians 1:7). It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth. In fact, that is what divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his infinite beauty."
Reason #6 - To Show His Own Love for Us
ReplyDelete"[Christ] loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20
"Surely this is the way we should understand the sufferings and death of Christ. They have to do with me. They are about Christ's love for me personally. It is my sin that cuts me off from God, not sin in general. It is my hard-heartedness and spiritual numbness that demean the worth of Christ. I am lost and perishing. When it comes to salvation, I have forfeited all claim on justice. All I can do is plead for mercy."
"...he paid the highest price possible to give me the greatest gift possible. ...But the best is yet to come. He died to secure this for me. That is the love of Christ."
Reason #7 - To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us
ReplyDelete"What a folly it is to think that our good deeds may one day outweigh our bad deeds. It is folly for two reasons. First, it is not true. ... The second, ...this is not the way God saves."
"It is folly to think that our good deeds will outweigh our bad deeds before God. Without Christ-exalting faith, our deeds will signify nothing but rebellion."
"There is no salvation by balancing the records. There is only salvation by canceling records. The record of our bad deeds (including our defective good deeds), along with the just penalties that each deserves, must be blotted out - not balanced. This is what Christ suffered and died to accomplish."
"Parchment was not nailed to the cross. Christ was. So Christ became my damming record of bad (and good) deeds. He endured my damnation. He put my salvation on a totally different footing. He is my only hope. And faith in him is my only way to God."
Reason #8 - To Become a Ransom for Many
ReplyDelete"There is no thought in the Bible that Satan had to be paid off to let sinners be saved. What happened to Satan when Christ died was not payment, but defeat."
"The ransom price of this release from God's condemnation is the life of Christ. Not just his life lived, but his life given up in death."
"The price was not coerced from him. ... The price was paid freely; it was not forced. Which brings us again to his love. He freely chose to rescue us at the cost of his life."
"He said that he came 'to give his life as a ransom for many.' Yet not everyone will be ransomed from the wrath of God. But the offer is for everyone. 'There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all' (1 Timothy 2:5-6). No one is excluded from this salvation who embraces the treasure of the ransoming Christ."
Reason #9 - For the Forgiveness of Our Sins
ReplyDelete"Forgiveness assumes grace. If I am injured by you, grace lets it go. I don't sue you. I forgive you. Grace gives what someone doesn't deserve. That's why forgiveness has the word give in it. Forgiveness is not "getting" even. It is giving away the right to get even."
"The injury done to God's glory by our sin must be repaired so that in justice his glory shines more brightly. And if we criminals are to go free and be forgiven, there must be some dramatic demonstration that the honor of God is upheld even though former blasphemers are being set free."
"Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven. That's why we call it grace. But it cost Jesus his life. That is why we call it just. Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right for God to do this."
Reason #10 - To Provide the Basis for Our Justification
ReplyDelete"Being justified before God and being forgiven by God are not identical. ... Justifying is a legal act. It means declaring someone to be just. It is a verdict. The verdict of justification does not make a person just. It declares a person just."
"Canceling our failures to keep the law is not the same as declaring us to be a law-keeper. When a teacher cancels from the record an exam that got an F, it's not the same as declaring it to be an A. ...So also, canceling our sins is not the same as declaring us righteous. The cancellation must happen. That is essential to justification."
Reason #11 - To Complete the Obedience that Becomes Our Righteousness
ReplyDelete"Justification is not merely the cancellation of my unrighteousness. It is also the imputation of Christ's righteousness that commends me to God."
"So there are two reasons why it is not abominable for God to justify the ungodly (Romans 4:5). First, the death of Christ paid the debt of our unrighteousness. Second, the obedience of Christ provided the righteousness we needed to be justified in God's court. The demands of God for entrance into eternal life are not merely that our unrighteousness be canceled, but that our perfect righteousness be established."
"Therefore, Christ's death became the basis of our pardon and our perfection."
Reason #12 - To Take Away Our Condemnation
ReplyDelete"To be 'in Christ' means to be in relationship to him by faith. Faith in Christ unites us to Christ so that his death becomes our death and his perfection becomes our perfection. Christ becomes our punishment (which we don't have to bear) and our perfection (which we cannot perform)."
"We will not be condemned twice for the same offenses. Christ has died once for our sins. We will not be condemned for them. Condemnation isn't gone because there isn't any, but because is has already happened."
"No one can successfully [condemn us]. If they reject us, he accepts us. If they hate us, he loves us. If they imprison us, he sets our spirits free. If they afflict us, he refines us by the fire. If they kill us, he makes it a passage to paradise. They cannot defeat us. Christ has died. Christ has risen. We are alive in him. And in him there is no condemnation. We are forgiven, and we are righteous."
Reason #13 - To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation
ReplyDelete"How did rituals relate to the gospel of Christ - the news that, if you believe on him your sins are forgiven, and you are justified before God? God is for you. You have eternal life."
"The very meaning of the suffering and death of Christ was at stake. Was faith in Christ enough to put us right with God? Or was circumcision necessary too? The answer was clear. If Paul preached circumcision, 'the offense of the cross has been removed' (Galatians 5:11). The cross means freedom from the enslavement of ritual. 'For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery' (Galatians 5:1)."
Reason #14 - To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful
ReplyDelete"The 'old covenant' refers to the arrangement God established with Israel in the law of Moses. Its weakness was that it was not accompanied by spiritual transformation."
"The new covenant is radically more effective than the old. It is enacted on the foundation of Jesus' suffering and death. 'He is the mediator of a new covenant' (Hebrews 9:15). Jesus said that his blood was the 'blood of the covenant, which was poured our for many' (Mark 14:24). This means that the blood of Jesus purchased the power and promises of the new covenant. it is supremely effective because Christ died to make it so."
"The suffering and death of Christ guarantees the inner change of his people (the law written on their hearts) and the forgiveness of their sins. To guarantee that this covenant will not fail, Christ takes the initiative to create the faith and secure the faithfulness of his people."
"When Christ died, he secured for his people not only new hearts but new security. He will not let them turn from him. He will keep them. They will persevere. The blood of the covenant guarantees it."
Reason #15 - To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect
ReplyDelete"One of the greatest heartaches in the Christian life is the slowness of our change."
"We groan even as we take fresh resolve: 'Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own' (Philippians 3:12). That very statement is the key to endurance and joy. 'Christ Jesus has made me his own.' All my reaching and yearning and striving is not to belong to Christ (which has already happened), but to complete what is lacking in my likeness to him."
"Being sanctified means that we are imperfect and in process. We are becoming holy - but are not yet fully holy. And it is precisely these - and only these - who are already perfected. The joyful encouragement here is that the evidence of our perfection before God is not our experienced perfection, but our experienced progress. The good news is that being on the way is proof that we have arrived."
"The suffering of Christ secures our perfection so firmly that it is already now a reality. Therefore, we fight against our sin not simply to become perfect, but because we are. The death of Jesus is the key to battling our imperfections on the firm foundation of our perfection."
Reason #16 - To Give Us a Clear Conscience
ReplyDelete"The problem of a dirty conscience is as old as Adam and Eve. As soon as they sinned , their conscience was defiled. Their sense of guilt was ruinous. It ruined their relationship with God - they hid from him. It ruined their relation to each other - they blamed. It ruined their peace with themselves - for the first time they saw themselves and felt shame."
"Our conscience condemns us. We don't feel good enough to come to God. And no matter how distorted our consciences are, this much is true: We are not good enough to come to him. We can cut ourselves, or throw our children in the sacred river, or give a million dollars to the United Way, or serve in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, or perform a hundred forms of penance and self-injury, and the result will be the same: The stain remains, and death terrifies."
"When our conscience rises up and condemns us, where will we turn? We turn to Christ. We turn to the suffering and death of Christ - the blood of Christ. This is the only cleansing agent in the universe that can give the conscience relief in life and peace in death."
Reason #17 - To Obtain for Us All Things that are Good for Us
ReplyDelete"If God did the hardest thing of all - namely, give up his own Son to suffering and death - then it is certain that he will do the comparatively easy thing, namely, give us all things with him."
"But what does 'give us all things' mean? Not an easy life of comfort. Not even safety from our enemies. ... What then does it mean that because of Christ's death for us God will certainly with him graciously give us 'all things'? It means that he will give us all things that are good for us. All things that we really need in order to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29). All things we need in order to attain everlasting joy."
"God will meet every real need, including the ability to rejoice in suffering when many felt needs do not get met."
Reason #18 - To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness
ReplyDelete"Christ suffered and died so that disease would one day be utterly destroyed. Disease and death were not part of God's original way with the world. They came in with sin as a part of God's judgment on creation."
"The way Christ defeated death and disease was by taking them on himself and carrying them with him to the grave. God's judgment on the sin that brought disease was endured by Jesus when he suffered and died."
"One day all disease will be banished from God's redeemed creation. There will be a new earth. We will new bodies. Death will be swallowed up by everlasting life (1 Corinthians 15:54; 2 Corinthians 5:4)."
Reason #19 - To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him
ReplyDelete"In our happiest times we do not want to die. The wish for death only rises when our suffering seems unbearable. What we really want in those times is not death, but relief."
"[Death] is an enemy. It cuts us off from all of the wonderful pleasures of this life. ...We were made to live forever. And we will. The opposite of eternal life is not annihilation. It is hell."
"As hell is the worst outcome of this life, so 'eternal life' is the best. It is supreme and ever-increasing happiness where all sin and all sadness will be gone. All that is evil and harmful in this fallen creation will be removed. All that is good - all that will bring true and lasting happiness - will be preserved and purified and intensified."
Reason #20 - To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age
ReplyDelete"...when the Bible says that Christ gave himself 'to deliver us from the present evil age,' it does not mean that he will take us our of the world, but that he will deliver us from the power of the evil in it."
"Until we waken to our darkened spiritual condition, we live in sync with 'the present evil age' and the ruler of it. 'You once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience' (Ephesians 2:2). Without knowing it, we were lackeys of the devil. What felt like freedom was bondage."
"What then is the wisdom of God in this age? It is the great liberating death of Jesus Christ. ...When Christ went to the cross, he set millions of captives free. He unmasked the devil's fraud and broke his power. ...Don't follow a defeated foe. Follow Christ. It is costly. You will be in exile in this age. But you will be free."
Reason #21 - To Reconcile Us to God
ReplyDelete"The reconciliation that needs to happen between sinful man and God goes both ways. Our attitude toward God must be changed from defiance to faith. And God's attitude to us must be changed from wrath to mercy. But the two are not the same. I need God's help to change; but God does not need mine. My change will have to come from outside of me, but God's change originates in his own nature. Which means that overall, it is not a change in God at all. It is God's own planned action to stop being against me and start being for me."
"God first act in reconciling us to himself was to remove the obstacles that made him irreconcilable, namely, the God-belittling guilt of our sin. 'In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them' (2 Corinthians 5:19)."
"He too the steps we could not take to remove his own judgment. He sent Christ to suffer in our place. The decisive reconciliation happened 'while we were enemies.' Reconciliation from our side is simply to receive what God has already done, the way we receive an infinitely valuable gift."
Reason #22 - To Bring Us to God
ReplyDelete"[S]alvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn't open the way to God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn't bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn't bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father's family but not in his arms."
"Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God. There is no sure evidence that we have new heart just because we want to escape hell. That's a perfectly natural desire, not a supernatural one. It doesn't take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God's wrath, or the inheritance of God's world. All these things are understandable without any spiritual change. You don't need to be born again to want these things. The devils want them."
"[We] were made to experience full and lasting happiness from seeing and savoring the glory of God. If our best joy comes from something less, we are idolaters and God is dishonored. He created us in such a way that his glory is displayed through our joy in it. The gospel of Christ is the good news that at the cost of his Son's life, God has done everything necessary to enthrall us with what will make us eternally and ever-increasingly happy, namely, himself."
Reason #23 - So That We Might Belong to Him
ReplyDelete"There is no autonomy in the fallen world. We are governed by sin or governed by God."
"'You are not your own, for you were bought with a price' (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). And what price did Christ pay for those who trust him? 'He obtained [them] with his own blood' (Acts 20:28."
"Now we are free indeed. Not to be autonomous, but to want what is good. A whole new way of life opens to us when the death of Christ becomes the death of our old self. Relationship with the living Christ replaces rules. And the freedom of fruit-bearing replaces the bondage of law."
Reason #24 - To give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place
ReplyDelete"All the worship practices of Israel in the Old Testament point toward something more real."
"When Christ appeared as a high priest...through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. (Hebrews 9:11-12)"
"The implication of this for us is that the way is now opened for us to go with Christ into all the holiest places of God's presence."
"Without Christ the holiness of God had to be protected from us. He would have been dishonored, and we would have been consumed because of our sin. But now, because of Christ, we may come near and feast our hearts on the fullness of the flaming beauty of God's holiness. He will not be dishonored. We will not be consumed. Because of the all-protecting Christ, God will be honored, and we will stand in everlasting awe. Therefore, do not fear to come. But come through Christ."
Reason #25 - To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God
ReplyDelete"Jesus answered them, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' The Jews then said, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?' But he was speaking about the temple of his body." (John 2:19-21)
"Why did Jesus draw the connection between the Jewish temple and his own body? Because he came to take the place of the temple as the meeting place with God.With the coming of the Son of God in human flesh, ritual and worship would undergo profound change. Christ himself would become the final Passover lamb, the final priest, the final temple. They would all pass away, and he would remain."
"There is no temple now. Jerusalem is not the center. Christ is. Do we want to see God? Jesus says, 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). Do we want to receive God? Jesus says, 'Whoever receives me receives him who sent me?' (Matthew 10:40). Do we want to have the presence of God in worship? The Bible says, 'Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also' (1 John 2:23). Do we want to honor the Father? Jesus says, 'Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him' (John 5:23)."
"When Christ died and rose again, the old temple was replaced by the globally accessible Christ. You may come to him without moving a muscle. He is as close as faith."
Reason #26 - To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest
ReplyDelete"He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself." Hebrews 7:27
"One of the greatest phrases of Christian truth is 'once for all.' It comes from one Greek word (ephapax) and means 'once for all time.' It means that something happened that was decisive. The act accomplished so much that it need never be repeated. Any effort to repeat it would discredit the achievement that happened 'once for all.'"
"That's who Jesus Christ is. He became the final Priest and the final Sacrifice. Sinless, he did not need to offer sacrifices for himself. Immortal, he never has to be replaced. Human, he could bear human sins. Therefore he did not offer sacrifices for himself; he offered himself as the final sacrifice. There will never be the need for another. There is one mediator between us and God. One priest. We need no other. Oh, how happy are those who draw near to God through Christ alone."
Reason #27 - To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest
ReplyDelete"No one has ever suffered more. No one has ever endured more abuse. And no one ever deserved it less or had a greater right to fight back."
"The risen Son of God in heaven at God's right hand with all authority over the universe feels what we fell when we come to him in sorrow or pain - or cornered with the promise of sinful pleasure."
"He feels with us, not against us. This awareness of Christ's sympathy makes us bold to come. He knows our cry. He tasted our struggle. He bids us come with confidence when we feel our need."
Reason #28 - To Free Us from the Futility of Our Ancestry
ReplyDelete"Animistic people may speak in terms of ancestral spirits and the transmission of curses. Secular people may speak of genetic influence or the wounding of abusive, codependent, emotionally distant parents. In both cases there is a sense of fatalism that we are bound to live with the curse or the wounds from our ancestry. The future seems futile and void of happiness."
"You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19)
"When Christ died, God a view to the relationship between us and our ancestors. He meant to set us free from the futility we inherited from them. This is one of the greatest reasons Christ died."
"When Jesus died, all the blessings of heaven were purchased for those who trust him. And when God blesses, none can curse. Nor is any wound that was inflicted by a parent beyond the healing of Jesus. The healing ransom is called 'the precious blood of Christ.' The word 'precious' conveys infinite value. Therefore the ransom is infinitely liberating. No bondage can stand against it. Therefore, let us turn from silver and gold and embrace the gift of God."
Reason #29 - To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin
ReplyDelete"Our sin ruins us in two ways. It makes us guilty before God, so that we are under his just condemnation; and it makes us ugly in our behavior, so that we disfigure the image of God we were meant to display. It damns us with guilt, and it enslaves us to lovelessness. The blood of Jesus frees us from both miseries. It satisfies God's righteousness so that our sins can be justly forgiven. And it defeats the power of sin to make us slaves to lovelessness."
Reason #30 - That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness
ReplyDelete"Strange as it may sound, Christ's dying in our place and for our sins means that we died."
"We look back on his death and know that, in the mind of God, we were there. Our sins were on him, and the death we deserved was happening to us on him."
"My sin brought Jesus to the grave and brought me there with him. Faith sees sin as murderous. It killed Jesus, and it killed me. Therefore, becoming a Christian means death to sin. The old self that loved sin died with Jesus."
"The beauty of Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me, is the desire of my soul. And his beauty is perfect righteousness. The command that I now love to obey is this: 'Present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness' (Romans 6:13)."
Reason #31 - So that We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God
ReplyDelete"Sin was not the only reality that killed Jesus and us. When we break the law by sinning, the law sentences us to death. If there were no law, there would be no punishment."
"There was no escape from the curse of the law. It was just; we were guilty. There was only one way to be free: Someone must pay the penalty. That's why Jesus came: 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us' (Galatians 3:13)."
"There is no hope of getting right with God by law-keeping. The only hope is the blood and righteousness of Christ, which is ours by faith alone. 'We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law' (Romans 3:28)."
"...instead of belonging to the law, which demands and condemns, we now belong to Christ who demands and gives."
Reason #32 - To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves
ReplyDelete"Boiled down to its essence, 2 Corinthians 5:15 says Christ died for us that we might live for him. ...The very essence of sin is that we have failed to glorify God-which includes failing to glorify his Son (Romans 3:23). But Christ died to bear that sin and to free us from it. So he died to bear the dishonor that we had heaped on him by our sin. He died to turn this around. Christ died for the glory of Christ."
"He died to wean us from poisonous pleasures and enthrall us with the pleasures of his beauty. In this way we are loved, and he is honored. These are not competing aims. They are one."
Reason #33 - To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting
ReplyDelete"[All] other boasting should still be boasting in the cross. If we boast in the hope of glory, that very boast should be a boast in the cross of Christ. If we boast in the people of Christ, that very boast should be a boasting in the cross. Boasting only in the cross means only the cross enables every other legitimate boast, and every legitimate boast should therefore honor the cross."
Reason #34 - To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him
ReplyDelete"There is an explicit paradox in this verse. 'I have been crucified,' but 'I now live.'...Paradoxes are not contradictions. They just sound that way. What Paul means is that there was an 'I' who died, and there is a different 'I' who lives. That's what it means to become a Christian. An old self dies. A new self is 'created' or 'raised.' ...The aim of the death of Christ was to take our 'old self' with him into the grave and put an end to it."
"...the new self is Christ living in me: 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.' I take this to mean that the new self is defined by Christ's presence and help at all times. He is always imparting life to me. He is always strengthening me for what he calls me to do."
"[The new self] lives by trusting Christ moment by moment. 'The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.' Without this second description of the new self, we might wonder what our part is in experiencing Christ's daily help. Now we have the answer: faith."
Reason #35 - To Give Marriage It's Deepest Meaning
ReplyDelete"God's design for marriage in the Bible pictures the husband loving his wife the way Christ loves his people, and the wife responding to her husband the way Christ's people should respond to him. ...the point of the analogy is how Jesus loved them to the point of death and did not cast them away."
"[In] God's mind marriage was designed in the beginning to display Christ's relationship to his people. ...Even though God did not aim, in the beginning, for marriages to be miserable, many are. That's what sin does. It makes us treat each other badly. Christ suffered and died to change that. Wives have their responsibility in this change. But Christ gives a special responsibility to husbands. That's why the Bible says, 'Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her' (Ephesians 5:25).
"Husbands are not Christ. But they are called to be like him. And the specific point of likeness is the husband's readiness to suffer for his wife's good without threatening or abusing her. This includes suffering to protect her from any outside forces that would harm her, as well as suffering disappointments or abuses even from her. This kind of love is possible because Christ died for both husband and wife. Their sins are forgiven. Neither needs to make the other suffer for sins. Christ has borne that suffering. Now as two sinful and forgiven people we can return good for evil."
Reason #36 - To Create a People Passionate for Good Works
ReplyDelete"At the heart of Christianity is the truth that we are forgiven and accepted by God, not because we have done good works, but to make us able and zealous to do them."
"This is the meaning of grace. We cannot obtain a right standing with god because of our works. It must be a free gift. We can only receive it by faith, cherishing it as our great treasure."
"Christ did not die to make good works merely possible or to produce a half-hearted pursuit. he died to produce in us a passion for good deeds. Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good."
Reason #37 - To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love
ReplyDelete"Christ is not given to us first as model, but as Savior. In the experience of the believer, first comes the pardon of Christ, then the pattern of Christ. In the experience of Christ himself, they happen together: The same suffering pardons our sins provides our pattern of love."
"[The unique suffering of Christ], after pardoning and justifying sinners, transforms them into people who act like Jesus-not like him in pardoning, but like him in loving. Like him in suffering to do good to others. Like him in not returning evil for evil. Like him in lowliness and meekness. Like him in patient endurance. Like him in servanthood. Jesus suffered for us uniquely, that we might suffer with him in the cause of love."
"Our suffering for others does not remove the wrath of God. It shows the value of having the wrath of God removed by the suffering of Christ. It points people to him."
Reason #38 - To Create a Band of Crucified Followers
ReplyDelete"In a sense, the Calvary road is where everyone meets Jesus. It's true that he has already walked the road, and died, and risen, and now reigns in heaven until he comes again. But when Christ meets a person today, it is always on the Calvary road - on the way to the cross. Every time he meets someone on the Calvary road he says, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me' (Luke 9:23)."
"[Today] the words are sobering. They mean at least that when I follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord, the old self-determining, self-absorbed me must be crucified. I must every day reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God. This is the path of life: 'Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus' (Romans 6:11)."
Reason #39 - To Free Us From Bondage to the Fear of Death
ReplyDelete"[Satan's] power to damn human beings lies not in himself, but in the sins that he inspires and the lies that he tells. The only thing that damns anybody is unforgiven sin."
"...Christ took our sins on himself and suffered for them. When that happened, they could be used no more by the devil to destroy us. Taunt us? Yes. Mock us? Yes. But damn us? No. Christ bore the curse in our place. Try as he will, Satan cannot destroy us. The wrath of God is removed. His mercy is our shield. And Satan cannot succeed against us. ... The devil may kill our body, but he can no longer kill our soul. It is safe in Christ."
Reason #40 - So that We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death
ReplyDelete"We must not go so far as to say that without the body we can have no life and consciousness. The Bible does not teach this. Christ died not only to redeem the body, but also to bind the soul so closely to himself that, even without the body, we are with him. This is a huge comfort in life and death, and Christ died so that we would enjoy this hope."
Reason #41 - To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead
ReplyDelete"Then, in the grave, he had the right and the power to take the keys of death and open the door for all who come to him by faith. If sin is paid for, and righteousness is provided, and justice is satisfied, nothing can keep Christ or his people in the grave. That's why Jesus shouts, 'I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades' (Revelation 1:18)."
"Here's the connection between Christ's death and our resurrection: 'The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law' (1 Corinthians 15:56). Which means, we have all sinned, and the law sentences sinners to everlasting death. But the text continues, 'Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (verse 57). In other words, the demand of the law is met by Jesus' life and death. Therefore, sins are forgiven. Therefore, the sting of sin is removed. Therefore, those who believe in Christ will not be sentenced to everlasting death, but will 'be raised imperishable...then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory"' (I Corinthians 15:52, 54). Be astonished, and come to Christ. He invites you: 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live' (John 11:25)."
Reason #42 - To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities
ReplyDelete"...if God's law no longer condemns us, because Christ cancelled our debt, then Satan has no grounds to accuse us. Accusation of God's people was the devil's great work before Christ. ... Now in Christ no accusations can stand against God's people."
Reason #43 - To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel
ReplyDelete"If anyone is going to see the gospel as true and good, satanic blindness and natural deadness must be overcome by the power of God. This is why the Bible says that even though the gospel is foolishness to many, yet 'to those who are called...Christ[is] the power of God and the wisdom of God' (1 Corinthians 1:24). This 'calling' is the merciful act of God to remove natural deadness and satanic blindness, so that we see Christ as true and good. This merciful act is itself a blood-bought gift of Christ. Look to him, and pray that God would enable you to see and embrace the gospel of Christ."
Reason #44 - To Destroy Hostility Between the Races
ReplyDelete"Jesus died to create a whole new way for races to be reconciled. Ritual and race are not the ground of joyful togetherness. Christ is. He fulfilled the law perfectly. All aspects of it that separated people ended in him - except one: the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is impossible to build a lasting unity among races by saying that all religions can come together as equally valid. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. God sent him into the world as the one and only means of saving sinners and reconciling races forever. If we deny this, we undermine the very foundation of eternal hope and everlasting unity among peoples. By his death on the cross, something cosmic, not parochial, was accomplished. God and man were reconciled. Only as races find and enjoy this will they love and enjoy each other forever. In overcoming our alienation from God, Christ overcomes it between races."
Reason #45 - To Ransom People from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation
ReplyDelete"Christ died to save a great diversity of peoples. Sin is no respecter of cultures. All people have sinned. Every race and culture needs to be reconciled to God. As the disease of sin is global, so the remedy is global."
Reason #46 - To Gather All His Sheep from Around the World
ReplyDelete"It is an awesome thing that God looks down on all the peoples of the world and names a flock for himself, and then sends missionaries in the name of Christ, and then leads his chosen ones to the sounds of the gospel, and then saves them. They could be saved no other way. Missions is essential. 'The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out...the sheep follow him, for they know his voice' (John 10:3-4)."
Reason #47 - To Rescue Us from Final Judgment
ReplyDelete"The Christian idea of salvation relates to past, present, and future. ...We have been saved. We are being saved. We will be saved. At every stage we are saved by the death of Christ. In the past, once for all, our sins were paid for by Christ himself. We were justified by faith alone. In the present, the death of Christ secures the power of God's Spirit to save us progressively from the domination and contamination of sin. And in the future, it will be the blood of Christ, poured out on the cross, that protects us from the wrath of God and brings us to perfection and joy."
"Sin was dealt with once for all. No new sacrifice is needed. Our shield from future wrath is as sure as the sufferings of Christ in our place. For the sake of the cross, then, exalt in future grace."
Reason #48 - To Gain His Joy and Ours
ReplyDelete"The path that leads to joy is a hard road. It's hard for us, and it was hard for Jesus. It cost him his life. It may cost us ours. 'For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross.' First the agony of the cross, then the ecstasy of heaven. There was no other way."
"If Jesus had not willingly died, neither he nor we could be forever glad. He would have been disobedient. We would have perished in our sins. His joy and ours were acquired at the cross. Now we follow him in the path of love. We reckon 'that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us' (Romans 8:18). Now we bear reproach with him. But then there will be undiminished joy. Any risk required by love will endure. Not with heroic might, but in the strength of hope that 'Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning' (Psalm 30:5)."
Reason #49 - So That He Would Be Crowned with Glory and Honor
ReplyDelete"The passion of Jesus Christ did not merely precede the crown; it was the price, and the crown was the prize. He died to have it."
"Our happiest moments have not been self-saturated moments, but self-forgetful moments. There have been times when we stood beside the Grand Canyon, or at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, or viewed a stunning sunset over the Sahara, and for a fleeting moment felt the joy of sheer wonder. This is what we were made for. Paradise will not be a hall of mirrors. It will be a display of majesty. And it won't be ours."
"If we are to be as happy as we can be, we must see and savor the most glorious person of all, Jesus Christ himself. This means that to love us, Jesus must seek the fullness of his glory and offer it to us for our enjoyment."
"When Jesus died to regain the fullness of his glory, he died for our joy. Love is the labor - whatever the cost - of helping people be enthralled with what will satisfy them most, namely, Jesus Christ. That is how Jesus loves."
Reason #50 - To Show That the Worst Evil is Meant by God for Good
ReplyDelete"The most profound thing we can say about suffering and evil is that, in Jesus Christ, God entered into it and turned it for good."
"There is no greater sin than to hate and kill the Son of God. There was no greater suffering nor any greater innocence than the suffering and innocence of Christ. Yet God was in it all. 'It was the will of the Lord to crush him' (Isaiah 53:10). His aim, through evil and suffering, was to destroy evil and suffering. 'With his stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53:5). This is why Jesus came to die. God meant to show the world that there is no sin and evil too great that God cannot bring from it everlasting righteousness and joy. The very suffering we caused became the hope of our salvation. 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:34)."