The Cross of Christ

The Cross of Christ has such meaning for believers, yet it is still so complicated. I sometimes struggle with the means and the meaning of the cross. Yet, in my moments of clarity, I see so much. I see the love, the reconciliation, the atonement, and the sacrifice. Charles Spurgeon said of the cross;

“The sufferings of Jesus have power to bless others, seeing they were not necessary for Himself. He had no need to suffer as the result of sin, nor yet that, by the discipline of suffering, He might be purged from its evil. There was no reason in Himself why He should ever know pain, or heave a sigh. His sufferings all had reference to His people. His object in suffering, bleeding, dying, was to secure the salvation of His chosen. Our souls may now trust Jesus, the perfect man, with the utmost confidence.”

So as we come to terms with this magnificent sacrifice done for God’s chosen, I can’t help but drop to my knees in amazement and thankfulness. As I continue to dwell on the significance of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. It is all at once troubling, humbling, mysterious, wondrous, glorious, and oh so very necessary.

John Stott so brilliantly states;

“When we are united to Christ a mysterious exchange takes place: he took our curse, so that we may receive his blessing; he became sin with our sin, so that we may become righteous with his righteousness. . . . On the one hand, God declined to ‘impute’ our sins to us, or ‘count’ them against us, with the implication that he imputed them to Christ instead. On the other, God has imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. . . . We ourselves have done nothing of what is imputed to us, nor Christ anything of what is imputed to him. . . . He voluntarily accepted liability for our sins.”

In 1 Peter 3:18 we are reminded;

Christ also has once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God

So let’s close this humble offering with the conclusion of a Spurgeon sermon on the cross delivered on a Sunday in 1856;

“Ah! Poor sinner, what do you say? Are you offended by the cross? No, you are not, for it is there that you wish to be set free from your sins. Do you desire this moment to come to Christ? You say, “I have no offense against Christ. Oh, that I knew where I might find him! I would come even to where he sits.” Well, if you want Christ, Christ wants you; if you desire Christ, Christ desires you. Yes, more than you desire him; if you have one spark of desire for Christ, then Christ has a whole burning mountain of desire for you. He loves you better than you can ever love him. Rest assured that you did not first seek God. If you are seeking Jesus, he has first sought you. Come, then, you destitute, weary, lost, helpless, ruined, chief of sinners; come, put your trust in his blood and his perfect righteousness, and you will go on your way rejoicing in Christ, set free from sin, delivered from iniquity, rendered as safe, though not as happy, as the very angels that now sing high hosannas before the throne of the Most High! Amen”

WOW!

Grace and Peace!

I Know that my Redeemer Lives

Scripture is so amazing that even a verse or part of a verse can contain such meaning. Every once in a while a passage will really just come alive for me. It is not often, but it is just an amazing thing. Recently this happened with me on just part of a verse; and while it is a famous verse, one that I have blogged about before there was more. In Job 19:25a we are told;

“I know that my Redeemer lives”.

Just six words but what can we take from them; what came alive for me? I have a friend who gave me some great advice that when studying scripture it will sometimes help to break the structure of the verse down. So it helped me to break this verse into two parts; I know that; and My Redeemer lives. I see so much in each of those segments.

First, I think we can learn a little about faith. Notice with all Job is going through, all that he has lost he says I know that…he doesn’t say I hope that or I suppose that or I think that; he states emphatically, I know that! Can you see the great faith Job shows; great faith even though just five verses earlier he tells us he has lost everything but the skin on his teeth. It’s truly a faith that seems to surpass understanding, a faith we can read about in Hebrews 11 with the heroes of faith. It is a faith we can see in Genesis 22 with Abraham; a faith that no matter the trial or circumstance knowing the lord will provide.

That reminds me of a story of a man and his son that live in an old farm house. One night the house catches fire and the father manages to get everyone out except for his son. The father stands staring at the inferno when suddenly from the highest window in the house he sees his son crying for help. There is smoke everywhere and the father yells for his son to jump and I will catch you; but the son replies I can’t because I can’t see you. The father replies; Son I love you and it doesn’t matter that you can’t see me, what matters is that I see you. By faith (not blind faith, but trusting faith) the boy jumps and the father catches him.

So what I take from this is that faith enables us to face life, its circumstances and tragedies not because we see all or know all the answers, but because we are seen and we are known. We can have faith in all circumstances.

The second part of the verse; my Redeemer lives, is equally amazing to me. I notice first the word my – how personal is that and it’s followed by Redeemer lives. So to me each of us has a personal living redeemer; one that pays our debt that we are unable to pay, one that sets us free, one that recovers us, one that delivers us from penalty, one that atones and restores; one that buys us back; a personal and living Lord and Savior.

So bringing it all together; by faith we can enter into a personal relationship with our personal redeemer and it would seem to me that prayer would enable that relationship, prayer would enhance that relationship, and prayer would build that relationship.

I once heard of some missionaries that reported that some recent tribal converts just became so devoted to prayer. In fact each of these recent converts had a spot in the jungle where they would spend time praying their hearts out to God. Over time there became some well worn paths to these prayer spots. As a result if someone started neglecting prayer the others would say; brother, the grass grows on your path!

So may the grass never grow on our path which brings us back to Job 19:25a; “I know that my Redeemer lives.” Charles Spurgeon said of this verse, “A living redeemer truly mine is joy unspeakable!”

Grace and Peace!

Storms of Life

You know I just love our assistant pastor; he really in such a caring way stretches me. He many times asks me what is God teaching you? And you know recently I believe God has been leading me to a certain passage in Matthew.

It is a famous passage; one that points out the differences of being religious and trusting Christ; one that is used to help understand maturing as a Christian; and it is a passage that keeps coming before me. So as this happens I now ask myself what is God teaching me. This passage is the final parable and the final portion of the Sermon on the Mount. The sermon where Christ Himself teaches us things like turn the other Cheek, be salt and light, forgive one another, Do not judge and do not worry. This is the parable of The Wise and Foolish Builders; this is our Lord and Savior speaking;

24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

What can we take from this parable? I see a truth; a path; a divine lesson on how to weather the Storms of Life! Quickly unpacking this passage I see two key points; first I see the contrasting foundations of this passage. Can you see that one foundation was rock solid and deep while the other was shallow and weak? Can you see that one foundation has no real substance, is centered on worldly ideals, might even look good, but is it really built to last? The other foundation is Christ centered, grounded by the Gospel and with an eternal hope.

In the storms of life which house would you want to be in? You really have to think about that and I challenge each of you to really ask yourselves what has been built in your life? Are we as believers on that foundation of Rock; that foundation laid by Christ? Romans 8:31 tells us “If God is for us, who can be against us!”

And that brings us to our second point; kind of an amazing thing that I’ve got to confess has only recently become clear, as we read the parable did you notice even those well built houses; the houses built on rock were not exempt from the storms of life. We see this in verse 25; 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. Christians, as believers we are not exempt from storms! Look around, there are those that have suffered mightily. Do you know anyone who has weathered an economic storm, a health storm and emotional storm? But,you know what; when we are grounded by faith we are able to weather those storms. Was Christ; our Lord and Savior exempt from storms?

So Friends, no matter the condition; no matter the news before us, there is great hope this day. When our foundation is centered on Christ and solidly built on the eternal Word of God we are grounded, we are anchored, we are secured and we can weather any of life’s storms. With the right foundation we will survive the storms of life. When we recognize that our strength comes from the Lord, when we trust in the Lord and not ourselves, when we focus not on the struggle, but on the future hope provided by Christ; when we in times of storm we turn to Christ knowing he will rescue, save, restore, our foundation is solid.

In John 16:33 Christ says; I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Today, right now, this very minute, no matter the storm in front of us; may we all take heart!

Grace and Peace!