August 9, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Book
This is the fifth post in a series summarizing the chapters of R. C. Sproul’s book, THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
Chapter 5 – The Saving Substitute
Jesus, the Righteous Substitute
- “Jesus had to submit Himself to every detail of every law God had given to the nation.”
Expiation:
- “… taking away the guilt through the payment of a penalty or the offering of an atonment.”
Propitiation:
- “… brings about a change in God’s attitude, so that He moves from being at enmity with us to being for us. Through the process of propitiation, we are restored into fellowship and favor with Him.
Salvation:
- Generally speaking “any experience of deliverance from a clear and present danger can be spoken of as a form of salvation.”
- Biblically speaking “Jesus ‘delivers us form the wrath to come.’”
- “Therefore, Christ’s supreme achievement on the cross is that He placated the wrath of God, which would burn against us were we not covered by the sacrifice of Christ.”
Substitutionary Atonement:
- A Substitute has appeared in space and time, appointed by God Himself, to bear the weight and the burden of our transgressions, to make expiation for our guild, and to propitiate the wrath of God on our behalf. This is the gospel. Therefore, if you take away the substitutionary atonement, you empty the cross of its meaning and drain all the significance out of the passion of our Lord Himself. If you do that, you take away Chrsitianity itself.”
August 8, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Book
This is the fourth post in a series summarizing the chapters of R. C. Sproul’s book, THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
Chapter 4 – Ransomed from Above
Mark 10:45
- For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Ransom:
- “a price that was paid to release a slave from bondage or to set free hostages who were being held in military conflicts.”
1st Ransom Theory:
- “Jesus paid a ransom to Satan because Satan held fallen man under bondage.”
- Christus Victor: “If Christ paid a ransom to Satan to deliver us from Satan’s clutches, who is the victor?”
2nd Ransom Theory:
- “… the ransom was paid not to Satan but to God, because God was the One Who had to be satisfied.
- Naomi and Ruth and the kinsman-redeemer.
- “As our elder brother, [Christ] pays the indebtedness that we have incurred before God.”
August 7, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Book
This is the third post in a series summarizing the chapters of R. C. Sproul’s book, THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
Chapter 3 – Debtors, Enemies, and Criminals
“Sin is cosmic treason”
God is Author: (p34)
- “The word authority has another word in it—author. Because God is the Author of all things, He has authority over all that He has created.”
DEBT:
- Man is the debtor, God is the Creditor, and Christ is the Surety.
ENMITY:
- Man is the enemy, God is the violated one, and Christ is the mediator.
CRIME:
- Man is the criminal, God is the Judge, and Christ is the substitute.
- Illustration: Borrowing and not being able to pay vs. stealing.
Romans 3:26
- God set out “to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
August 6, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Book
This is the second post in a series summarizing the chapters of R. C. Sproul’s book, THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
Chapter 2 – The Just God
Why the God-Man?
- “… the chief reason a God-man was necessary was the justice of God.”
God is loving:
- “a major part of what He loves is His own perfect character.”
God’s Justice:
- “His eternal, immutable commitment always to do what is right.”
Mercy:
- The very idea of mercy implies justice.
August 5, 2008 at 11:33 am · Filed under Book
This is the first post in a series summarizing the chapters of R. C. Sproul’s book, THE TRUTH OF THE CROSS.
Chapter 1 – The Necessity of an Atonement
1Cor 2:2
- “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
Holy God and Sin as Offense: (p9)
- “If people understood that there is a holy God and that sin is an offense against that holy God, they would break down the doors of our churches and ask, “What must I do to be saved?”
Justification by Death: (p10)
- “The prevailing notion of justification in Western culture today is justification by death. It’s assumed that all one has to do to be received into the everlasting arms of God is to die.”
Primitive and Obscene: (p11)
- “It is primitive for a blood sacrifice to be made to satisfy the justice of a transcendent and holy God …. And the cross is an obscenity …. The cross was the ugliest, most obscene thing in the history of the world.”
Augustinianism, Semi-Pelagianism, and Pelagianism: (p12)
- Augustinianism – “salvation rests on God’s grace alone”
- Semi-Pelagianism – “salvation rests on human cooperation with God’s grace”
- Pelagianism – “salvation can be achieved without God’s grace”
Necessity?
- Absolutely Unnecessary – “Jesus died as a moral example for men”
- Hypothetically Necessary – “God could have redeemed us by a host of ways”
- Absolutely Necessary – “If any person was ever going to be reconciled to God and redeemed”
July 8, 2008 at 4:31 pm · Filed under Personal Reflection
I’ve been asked the question, “What is it that a pastor does all day?” enough times that it has led me to ask myself what exactly I am doing.
Well, I read a lot. And it seems that most of my reading just leads to more questions and thus more books. But is reading the end of what a pastor does? Ok, I write sermons and practice preaching them. But are sermons the end of what a pastor does? I visit people in their homes and in the hospital and in funeral visitation lines. Maybe I’m just a professional “kind person” and listening ear who reads a lot and talks about what he has learned.
And then there is the Great Commission to “make disciples”. Ok, maybe I’m a disciple maker. But have you ever really tried that? The problem with having your product be disciples is that disciples are persons. It is really hard, dare I say impossible, to make people do much of anything.
I can tell you a few other things that I do: I lead Bible studies, I pray with people, I meet a lot of people for breakfast or lunch, I have people over to my home, I meet with a lot of people in my office … Really, it seems that most of what I do is either with people or in preparation for being with people.
But again, people can’t possibly be my product because I just don’t have that kind of control over the shape and decisions of people. It sure would be nice sometimes if I could say that I’m in the book business … I make books. Or, I’m in the carpentry business … I make houses. But I can’t say I’m in the people business because I can’t make people do or become much of anything.
And then it hit me. While it may seem like I’m in the people business I really am simply in the obedience business. I’m in the business of obeying God by creating opportunity. The Bible and Christian tradition calls this proclamation. Proclamation is my product. I study the truth so that I can present the truth to people, thus creating opportunity for the person to respond.
Let me explain what I mean by proclaiming, as you might have the image of my suddenly jumping up on a chair and starting to shout the Romans Road.
I can’t make any person do anything. But I can understand the purpose for which each person is made; that is, to glorify their God by reflecting back to Him the beauty of His own image in increasing holiness. My final product isn’t a Holy Image Reflector or even a disciple. The pastor’s final product is simply an opportunity. I open up doors of invitation. I speak the truth in love and wait knowing that I’ve done my job. I am completely ignorant of what the Holy Spirit is doing in this sacred moment in the heart of a friend, or a congregant, or a stranger after he has heard the gospel, but I know when the opportunity is well-received because it is met with repentance and belief. I can’t see the inner workings of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, but I know when my efforts at providing opportunity for discipleship are met with the Holy Spirit’s work when the believer begins to bear the fruit of holy living.
Again, I don’t make repentance. Repentance is not my product. I don’t create belief. And I don’t grow believers even when they show their first signs of new life. I simply study the truth, speak the truth, and hold before persons and myself the call of holiness.
“So, pastor, what do you do all day? Are you in the people business?”
No, not really. I’m more in the business of obedience. I obey God by studying His truth, knowing His truth, practicing His truth, and holding up His truth. What people do with my business isn’t my business (though I admit that it is my great concern). It’s their business to be taken up between the Holy Spirit and their eternal soul.
June 17, 2008 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Scripture Reflection
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40)
I have read and wrestled with this passage for years as have many believers. I hope to reflected a good deal more here in the near future, but I have recently asked a new question of this passage that I would like to share here. I want to be clear that I am yet unsure of the answer to this question and would invite others to interact with me here.
The King speaks of the least of these, but who are these people? Are they anyone who is hungry or thirsty or in prison? The King adds one qualifier that until recently had gone unnoticed by me. The “least of these” the He is referring to are His brothers?
I put this question together with a reflection I have made in the past regarding Father’s Day and it seems that the parable changes a bit. I have heard pastors and believers celebrate on Father’s Day saying, “We honor our fathers, but we also honor the Father of all living things.” But this is not entirely accurate. God is creator of all things, but His use of the Fatherhood image He uses specifically to refer to His redeemed. Not all humans are the children of God. And the redeemed are the children of God only by virtue of being the brothers and sisters of the Father’s Son.
In the parable in Matthew 25 the King is Jesus and “the least of these” are His brothers. Believers are fellow heirs with Christ. Any reading of the Old Testament prophets must include a basic instruction to care for the poor and the oppressed within any God pleasing society. But it appears that this parable is not making a general appeal for social justice. This parable appears to be speaking of the King’s unwillingness to identify Himself with those who did not first identify with His own sons and daughters.
In the end, the sheep are being known by the King only as they were willing to identify with each other and specifically with the “least” among themselves. The goats are rejected because they were unwilling to identify themselves with the very members of the future kingdom.
Interestingly this is exactly what we see took place with the Apostle Paul. He was an enemy of Christ and a goat of goats as he was on the road to persecute the believers in Tarsus. It is on this road that He had an encounter with the King and is called to become one of “the least of these” in order to bring the gospel to those He would redeem. Read the letters of Paul and you will see one who became poor for the sake, not of a general social justice, but of the gospel, that is, the redeemed among the Gentiles.
If you have the opportunity I encourage you to read the Expositor’s Bible Commentary on this passage as it seems to indicate this sort of reading of Matthew 25. Please, I invite you to interact with me as I seek to understand this all important teaching of our Lord.
May 29, 2008 at 10:39 am · Filed under Guest Post
On Memorial Day at the beginning of this week I was asked to offer the invocation at the community Memorial Day service in Sheboygan Falls, WI. Below I have attached the speech given by Ed Michael.
— MEMORIAL DAY SPEECH by ED MICHAEL —
Memorial Day has traditionally been one of the most solemn and patriotic days for Americans. Memorial Day is a day when all Americans, regardless of ideologies, race, creed, or political persuasion, join together to remember the sacrifices of those who answered their nation’s call. Memorial Day is a time to take stock of the present, reflect on the past and renew our commitment to the future of America.
In America’s cities and towns today, flags will be placed on graves in cemeteries. Public officials will speak of the sacrifice and the valor of those whose memory we honor.
When he dedicated the battlefield at Gettysburg in 1863, Lincoln spoke of the inadequacy of words on occasions such as these. In his Gettysburg Address Lincoln said,
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” And so it is with us today. The eloquence of words cannot match the power of the sacrifices made by so many.
We honor them.
We praise them.
We remember them.
Today, as in the past, there are problems that must be solved and challenges that must be met. We can tackle them with our full strength and creativity only because we are free to work them out in our own way. We owe this freedom of choice and action to those men and women in uniform who have served this nation and its interest in time of need.
In particular, we are forever indebted to those who have given their lives that we might be free. I don’t have to tell you how fragile this precious gift of freedom is. Every time we hear, every time we watch, or every time we read the news, we are reminded that liberty is a rare commodity in this world.
Those who risked their lives on our behalf are often very clear about what matters most in their own lives. They tell what matters to those they love. I vividly remember the situation at our house when I was activated for Desert Shield/Storm and preparing to leave. After putting my bags in the car I went back into the house to get my wife Shirley to drive me to the airport and she was crying, I ask Shirley “What’s wrong?” She said that she couldn’t take me to the airport because the people (general public) shouldn’t see her crying. I looked at her and responded: “Honey, the President dialed 911 and I answered, You married a soldier”. She said “I know that … take care of yourself.”
Another example, of what matters in one’s life, is the comment of Master Sergeant Kelly Hornbeck, a Special Forces Soldier, who was killed in action south of Samarra, Iraq.
In a letter to his parents he wrote, “I am not afraid and neither should either of you be; for I trust in my God and my training, and these are two powerful forces that cannot be fully measured.
Markers, of veterans, in cemeteries all over the World record the names. Each was once or still is the most important person in someone’s life. With each loss in war, the world changed forever for the family and friends left behind. Each loss left others to carry on. Each loss left others to count the years of separation. And each loss left the living to hope for a reunion in a far better place.
Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough:
The United States and the freedom, for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. Life has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so to must we – in a less final, less heroic way be willing to give of ourselves.
Although the burden of grief can become easier to bear, always there is the memory of another time and the feeling of sadness over an unfinished life. Yet, the completeness of a life is not measured in length only. Life is measured in the deeds and commitments that give a life its purpose.
The commitment of these lives was clear to all;
They defended our nation,
They liberated the oppressed,
They served the cause of peace.
As I was preparing my remarks for today I came across the lyrics by Julia Ward Howe to the, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”. In the fifth verse she wrote,
“As He died to make men Holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.”
The second part of that stanza is often changed today to say, “Let us live to make men free.” The fifth verse of the Battle Hymn of the Republic reflects the meaning to a special e-mail that is circulating on the internet. It is a picture of Jesus on the Cross super imposed over a soldier kneeling in prayer with an M-16 rifle stuck in the ground by the bayonet, the helmet is set on top of the butt of the rifle stock, with a pair of empty boots and dog tags placed before the rifle. The caption of this picture reads;
“One died for your soul … the other died for your freedom.”
On this Memorial Day – pause to reflect on just what has been given and sacrificed so freely so that freedom could ring across this great land. And all Americans who have known the loss and sadness of war, whether recently or long ago, can know this: the person they love and miss is honored and remembered by the United States of America.
In closing: I can say, I have always considered it a Privilege and an Honor and to have been an American Soldier.
Thank You.
May 28, 2008 at 9:32 am · Filed under Movie
There are times when art moves the whole person not to the edge of his seat, but rather to the edge of his soul. Bella grows from beginning to end, even swelling to fill the viewer. But the emotion and thought is not beauty alone, it is pain. Bella uses pain to remind the viewer that he is really alive and has a soul and in the process shows the beauty of the possibility of life. Pain is real, and beauty is waiting.
(MP Rating: 5/5)
May 23, 2008 at 7:03 am · Filed under Reading Classics
Today I move on to Chapter 3 of A. W. Pink’s book, The Sayings of the Savior on the Cross. You can view all the posts in this series by clicking HERE.
— SUMMARY —
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother. … When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved he saith unto his mother, “Woman, behold they son!” Then saith he to the disciple, “Behold thy mother!” (John 19:25-27)
Pink does a wonderful job in this chapter of helping us to understand this brief exchange within the larger narrative as well as within the scope of the whole of scripture.
He begins the chapter by first noting that Mary was a woman “not unacquainted with grief.” Even from the beginning of the announcement by the angel that she would bear the Son of God scripture notes that “she was troubled at his saying.” And here, in this scene, we have this crucified man’s mother standing beneath the cross.
Pink makes seven observations about Jesus’ pronouncement.
Here we see …
1) … the fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy: Simeon had prophesied to Mary that “a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also”. Pink puts the fulfillment perfectly. “Never such bliss at a human birth, never such sorrow at an inhuman death.”
2) … the perfect man setting an example for children to honor their parents: Pink observes that to the very end Jesus “fully discharged the obligations of every relationship that He sustained, either to God or to man.” Pink explains at length that the fifth commandment applies to children of all ages, even adults. Jesus demonstrates this reality in this saying from the cross.
3) … that John had returned to the Saviour’s side: Not long before Jesus had asked his disciples to keep watch with Him for only a brief time. They failed Him then and subsequently scattered. But here we see that John returns to Jesus’ side. It is only right that it is the disciple whom Jesus loved who would first return to Him.
4) … an illustration of Christ’s prudence: It is only right that Jesus would choose the first disciple to return to Him as well as the one who had shared the greatest affection with Him to become the caregiver of the one who had borne Him and loved Him all the years of His life.
5) … that spiritual relationships must not ignore the responsibilities of nature: In the midst of the eternally significant work of atonement Jesus sees to the obligation He had as a natural son. Pink also discusses here the responsibilities of those in various ministries to also care for their “obligations of nature”.
6) … a universal need exemplified: Pink rightly notes Mary’s position at the foot of the cross. Mary, while blessed among women stands with the rest of creation having to decide her position beneath the cross.
7) … the marvelous blending of Christ’s perfections: In the midst of the divine work of atonement Jesus displays the most perfect of human affections. Pink observes that the great wonders of Jesus were performed “on the highway, in the cottage, or among a little group of sufferers.”
— REFLECTION —
The setting for this saying is Mary standing by the cross. Notice that Mary is the center of attention, not John. It makes me ask, would John have even returned as early as the crucifixion if he did not first see Mary’s intention of going there. It seems that John is attending to Mary. John is there less on behalf of Jesus and more on behalf of Mary. What lesson might John have learned from the love and faithfulness of Mary on this day?
Pink rightly points out the wisdom of the Savior to knit John and Mary together in this way. They would forever share together this experience of standing at the foot of the cross on the day the Savior died. And on the day of the resurrection the gospel narrative points out that upon seeing the empty tomb John believes and quickly returns home. Pink notes that this is certainly to share the good news with Mary. Now they would share not only the anguish of the crucifixion, but the joy of the resurrection.
I have never seen Jesus. I don’t know what He looks like. I don’t know what His voice sounds like. I don’t know what it is like to look at Jesus and love Him. John loved Jesus. John saw Jesus in His ministry, in His resurrection, and in His throne room. And John loved Jesus. John teaches me to love Jesus: to have a genuine affection for the crucified, resurrected, reigning Lord. I will one day see His face. John prepares me for that day such that I have already begun to see that He is wonderful in both His person and His work.
Pink notes that the disciples were not accustomed to forsaking the Lord and they never would after the resurrection. Much attention has been given to Peter’s denial and restoration. Peter gives me courage for ministry. But I, as one who is accustomed to forsaking the Lord, find encouragement from John. John loved the Lord so much that even when he forsook Jesus he returned to Jesus and found Him offering affection and atonement.
— INVITING YOUR THOUGHTS —
I hope that as you read that you will also respond below and interact with me as well as visit challies.com and interact there. As we interact let us keep in the spirit of A. W. Pink in his worshipful study and encouraging meditations.
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