“What makes sin sin, what makes it so profoundly heinous, what makes it so deeply repugnant and culpable, is that it is [an] offense against God. We dare not forget that the first commandment, according to Jesus, is the commandment to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. This the first sin - first sequentially, first in fundamental importance – is not to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. It is the sin we always commit when we commit any other sin. At the most profound level, whenever we sin, God is the most offended party. If, like David, we commit adultery, God is the most offended party. If we cheat on our income taxes, God is the most offended party. If we puff ourselves up in pride, indulge in slander, demean a colleague, or nurture bitterness, God is the most offended party. If we watch porn on the internet, God is the most offended party.”
I highly recommend this book – especially as we approach Easter. Carson does an outstanding job unpacking just a few of the glorious truths of Christ’s death and resurrection from a reformed, Biblical perspective.
As we approach Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday I hope to post a few articles and quotes that give us pause as we contemplate the glories of the cross of Jesus Christ and His resurrection. I’m reading through an excellent book entitled Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross which is a compilation of works by noted Christians such as Luther, Begg, Spurgeon, MacArthur and the like. I highly recommend this book. Following is an excerpt from one of the chapters by Martin Luther entitled “True Contemplation of the Cross” that really brings home a profound point to meditate on…
“Let us meditate a moment on the passion of CHrist. Some do so falsely in that they merely rail against Judas and the Jews. Some carry crucifixes to protect themselves from water, fire and sword, and turn the suffering of Christ into an amulet against suffering. Some weep, and that is the end of it. The true contemplation is that in which the heart is crushed and the conscience smitten. You must be overwhelmed by the frightful wrath of God who so hated sin that He spared not His only begotten Son. What can the sinner expect if the beloved Son was so afflicted? It must be an inexpressible and unendurable yearning that causes God’s Son Himself to suffer. Ponder this and you will tremble, and the more you ponder, the deeper you will tremble.”
How true is this profound statement! May we look long and hard into the Scriptures as we contemplate the life, death, resurrection and reigning ascension of the King of kings and see the glories of the cross of Christ. That on that cross the absolute perfect love and absolute perfect justice of God are simultaneously displayed. Let us be humbled by the glorious truth that “He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we may have the righteousness of God in Him”! (2 Corinthians 5:21) What magnificent truth!
“Anybody can believe in God. What it means to be a Christian is to trust Him when He speaks, which does not require a leap of faith or a crucifixion of the intellect. It requires a crucifixion of pride, because no one is more trustworthy than God.”
“Biblical faith, in the end, begins and ends with a simultaneous love for the Savior and a hatred for sin. Without either component, faith never leaves the ground. If we profess to love Jesus Christ but never deal with our sin, we are lost, unforgiven by the Father, and will not enter heaven. If we hate our sin but never run to Christ to receive His atoning grace, we have no remission of sins and we will not see eternal life. The Spirit must propel each of these doctrines into the sinful heart and mind if we are ever to know the grace of God and the glory of true Christianity.”
My wife sent me this video this morning about this elephant seal who literally cuddles with a woman on a beach. It’s one of the most amazing things I have seen in a while. Several things run through my mind when I watch this video. One is how amazing our great God is and being in awe of His creation. The heavens and the earth and all creation declares the glory of God indeed!
I am also reminded though that because of sin and because of man’s fall and rebellion Scripture tells us that all of creation groans in anticipation of Christ’s return when all things will be made new. (Romans 8:22) This truth from Scripture is precisely why seeing a clip like this makes us take attention. This kind of response from a wild animal is indeed a rarity.
Viewing this short video clip it made me wonder what life was like in Eden when Adam and Eve were with the animals and there was no fear. Do you wonder if they had experiences like this woman had with this wild animal – an animal that by all understanding should run from humanity in fear? This I believe is another way God gives us a small glimpse of what He has provided in Christ Jesus and thus points us to the necessity and grace of Christ Jesus.
Salvation and the cross of Jesus Christ is like a diamond with an infinite number of facets. Each time you begin to be in awe of the cross of Christ that diamond keeps turning with infinite facets of glory – each illustrating a new and awesome truth. One of those facets is that through the cross there will be a day at His Second Advent where Eden is restored and all things are made new. God in His infinite wisdom and grace continues to give humanity a small taste of heaven and the unfathomable riches in Christ Jesus through events like what we’re watching in this video.
Let us be reminded though that all creation groans because sin has separated us from God and His wrath rightly rests on all. Sin has marred all creation and that is evidenced by the rarity of this wild animal’s lack of fear with this woman. God’s wrath and love are simultaneously displayed at the cross of Jesus Christ showing us that Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life. Our conscience bears witness against us that we have sinned against the one true infinite, holy God and His wrath justly rests on all outside of Christ. It is only through Christ that our sin is expiated and propitiated and where God’s righteousness can be credited to us in the most glorious transaction in all of creation. (2 Corinthians 5:21). Cry out to the Lord and ask Him to grant you true repentance and faith and embrace the One true God – Christ Jesus the Lord and Savior.
O LORD GOD,
Thou art my protecting arm, fortress, refuge, shield, buckler. Fight for me and my foes must flee; uphold me and I cannot fall; strengthen me and I stand unmoved, unmoveable; equip me and I shall receive no wound; stand by me and Satan will depart; anoint my lips with a song of salvation and I shall shout Thy victory; give me abhorrence of all evil; as a vile monster that defies Thy laws, casts off Thy yoke, defiles my nature, spreads misery.
Teach me to look to Jesus on His cross and so to know sin’s loathsomeness in Thy sight. There is no pardon but through Thy Son’s death, no cleansing but in His precious blood, no atonement but His to expiate evil. Show me the shame, the agony, the bruises of incarnate God, that I may read boundless guilt in the boundless price; may I discern the deadly viper in its real malignity, tear it with holy indignation from my breast, resolutely turn fro its every snare, refuse to hold polluting dalliance with it.
Bless the Lord Jesus, at Thy cross may I be taught the awful miseries from which I am saved, ponder what the word ‘lost’ implies, see the fires of eternal destruction; then may I cling more closely to Thy broken self, adhere to Thee with firmer faith, be devoted to Thee with total being, detest sin as strongly as Thy love to me is strong, and may holiness be the atmosphere in which I live.
From Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers
“… and behold, a voice out of heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17
Oh the grace of our God! Not only did God demonstrate His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ came and died for us but even here at the baptism of our sin Substitute God graciously offer words of grace and comfort to the ears that will hear. I agree with Martin Luther that these words of Scripture and the spoken words of God from heaven were not for the benefit of Christ. Christ needed no encouragement of His sonship – that has been a reality for all eternity and forever will be. There is no doubt that these glorious words are for those who heard and for us today to remind us and assure us of glorious truths.
God is pleased in Himself. Only His righteousness can satisfy His holy requirements. Because of His perfect holiness, anything less than His righteousness demands punishment for it falls short of the His glory. Perfect righteousness is the requirement for God – nothing less. Oh to hear the sweet words from heaven that there in that water is God in the flesh – very God in whom the Father is well pleased. There is no spot or blemish in Jesus Christ.
To be married with Christ – to be found in Him through repentance and faith allows our hearts to hear the same words from the Father. That through the miracle of regeneration and adoption into the kingdom through Christ we are seen by God as having His absolute perfect righteousness. A true believer can also share in the heavenly herald of “in whom I am well pleased” because of that glorious union with Christ. The believer becomes and will always be well pleasing to the Father only because of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. For “He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we may have the righteousness of God in Him”. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Oh to rejoice in the doctrinal truths of Scripture! Do we truly take the time to simply meditate on the glorious truth that “God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son”? A world that hates God and covered with sin. And when we come to the reality that one sin against God is infinitely worse than all worldly tragedies combined the magnitude of Christ choosing to come to save His bride is astounding. Isn’t it time we truly put amazing back into grace?
May we rejoice that in Christ we are safe and secure. The cross is truly the “double cure” as the hymn writer sings. Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension not only save us from the penalty of sin, which is God’s wrath and eternal damnation but also from the power of sin – a changed life being progressively sanctified to be made more and more into the image of the very One who saved us. Because of Christ, and all because of Christ God is well pleased. There is peace between God and those who trust in Christ only because of the atoning propitiating death and perfect merit of the Lamb who was worthy to be slain.
Instead of being set apart to God, many so-called Christians have become too comfortable in our society. They’re willing to serve the Lord in their own way, but not if it costs them too much time or energy or if it conflicts with a favorite television program. They prefer to indulge in worldly pleasures to please themselves rather than give of themselves to please the Lord. Saint Augustine wrote, “Two cities have been formed by two loves; the earthy by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.” Many, sad to say, reside in the earthly city of self-love.
My wife and I have this tradition that on her birthday (which is a couple of weeks before Christmas) we head out to the Lowes down the road to pick out our Christmas tree. My wife’s favorite Christmas movie is the Charlie Brown Christmas and we both chuckle at that pitiful little tree they decorate with one ornament. So our tradition is to go to Lowes and look for the tree that no one else wants. We eagerly search out the one with the gaping hole in the back or the one that has just a few limbs or very few needles. That is the tree we choose and for us it means so much.
For us, like many families, it is a joy to setup the tree and decorate it. The Christmas tree is really one of the things that seems to kick off Christmas. It’s interesting that in many Christmas cards, web sites and movies the Christmas tree is a focal point of Christmas. Some people even put up several trees in their homes.
I received an email from a friend today that had pictures of all kinds of Christmas trees. It included everything from the tree in the White House to the tree in New York City to the tree that we typically see in most homes. The title of the email was simply, “This is a Christmas Tree”.
There is really one true Christmas tree. The true Christmas tree is the cross of Jesus Christ. It is the tree that God lifted up His gift of Christmas to the world so that all eyes would look to Him. It is the true Christmas tree in that we are humbly reminded that “cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree” (Gal. 3:13) and to remember that the Child in the manger is God’s gift to His Church (John 3:16) for His glory. Because of Christmas, we can say along with Paul, “I determine[d] to know nothing but Christ Jesus and Him crucified.” (1 Cor. 2:2)
Let us never, ever separate the cross from the manger. Let us remember that Christmas points to the cross. Jesus Christ humbled Himself to become a man so that He could die in full obedience to the Father to demonstrate God’s love and His justice simultaneously. Christmas is also a time to rejoice knowing that death could not hold our King and that His resurrection points us to the glorious truth that at this very moment He reigns at the right hand of the Father waiting for His enemies to be made a footstool to His feet. While we look back on our Lord’s first Advent this Christmas, let us also expectantly look forward to our Lord’s Second Advent when He will come in with all the angels in fire to collect His elect from the four corners of the earth! This, my friends is the Christmas story.
I firmly believe that Scriptures and the Gospel instructs those who desire to teach God’s Word must understand that they must always herald “done” before they can encourage “do”. I have seen and heard too many teachers today that are legalistic in their preaching of the commands of Scripture without first heralding the glorious doctrines of Christ’s cross-work so that Christians may rest on what has and is accomplished solely by Christ in order to be able to do what Scripture commands in respect to the sanctification of believers. We are all prone to legalism and therefore the teacher of God’s Word (who will be held more accountable) must be ever vigilant to guard against a proclamation of “do” without first proclaiming the glorious “done”!
“What makes sin sin, what makes it so profoundly heinous, what makes it so deeply repugnant and culpable, is that it is [an] offense against God. We dare not forget that the first commandment, according to Jesus, is the commandment to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. This the first sin - first sequentially, first in fundamental importance – is not to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength. It is the sin we always commit when we commit any other sin. At the most profound level, whenever we sin, God is the most offended party. If, like David, we commit adultery, God is the most offended party. If we cheat on our income taxes, God is the most offended party. If we puff ourselves up in pride, indulge in slander, demean a colleague, or nurture bitterness, God is the most offended party. If we watch porn on the internet, God is the most offended party.”
Instead of being set apart to God, many so-called Christians have become too comfortable in our society. They’re willing to serve the Lord in their own way, but not if it costs them too much time or energy or if it conflicts with a favorite television program. They prefer to indulge in worldly pleasures to please themselves rather than give of themselves to please the Lord. Saint Augustine wrote, “Two cities have been formed by two loves; the earthy by the love of self, even to the contempt of God, the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord.” Many, sad to say, reside in the earthly city of self-love.
My wife and I have this tradition that on her birthday (which is a couple of weeks before Christmas) we head out to the Lowes down the road to pick out our Christmas tree. My wife’s favorite Christmas movie is the Charlie Brown Christmas and we both chuckle at that pitiful little tree they decorate with one ornament. So our tradition is to go to Lowes and look for the tree that no one else wants. We eagerly search out the one with the gaping hole in the back or the one that has just a few limbs or very few needles. That is the tree we choose and for us it means so much.
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