Tag Archives: Cross

Night at Golgotha

 

Night at Golgotha (Vasilij Vereshchagin)

I’m not usually a big art person but there are a few pieces of art that are simply stunning and the masterpiece above by Russian artist Vasilij Vereshchagin (1869) is one such painting.

As we near Christmas, this artwork reminds us that the reason for the incarnation was so that the Child in the manger would die for the sins of His people. (Matthew 1:21) We so often get caught up in the hustle and bustle of Christmas that we forget that the shadow of the cross lies heavily over that humble manger.

This piece of artwork shows the darkness over the cross reminding us of God’s wrath poured out on our sin Substitute and the cry coming from the cross that the penalty for our sins is forever paid in full – “it is finished!” The procession going off into the distance with that haunting light shows us the funeral march as the lifeless body of the Lord Jesus Christ is carried to the sepulcher. Yet, the light glimmering there reminds us that death cannot hold Him. His resurrection for our justification (Romans 4:25) is gloriously imminent in this painting.

The miracle of Christmas is the incarnation. The Creator became the creation. Christ the man represents humanity as our High Priest and as our substitute He died in our stead for our sins. Christ the Almighty God is the infinitely worthy sacrifice to appease the infinitely worthy and just God. The painting above reminds us of the great truth that Christ humbled Himself to become a man and was obedient unto death (Philippians 2:8) to purchase His people and adopt them into His Kingdom. Death could not hold Him! He is now seated victoriously at the right hand of God awaiting for His enemies to be made a footstool to His feet. (Hebrews 10:13)

Miraculously, this Almighty King is not ashamed to call me His brother. (Hebrew 2:11) Now that is something to be eternally thankful for! Thank you Lord Jesus for Your amazing grace that saved a wretch like me!

Merry Christmas!

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The First Killer

If I were to ask you to name the first account of killing in Scripture you would most likely point back to the early Genesis account of Cain and Abel. In that scene, Cain invites Abel to join him in the field and then takes his life. It’s definitely a chilling account of the children of Satan and their enmity and hatred towards God’s people.

However, Cain is not the answer to the question of the first killer in Scripture. Incredibly enough, the first killer in Scripture is God. Let’s back up to the Fall of man in Genesis 3. Satan tempted Eve to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam also took of it. This single act of disobedience and outright sin caused all of mankind and all of creation for that matter to be under a curse. One thing to note is that right after Adam and Eve sinned they tried to cover their shame themselves using fig leaves. If we really look carefully at this, we see that Adam and Eve were truly the first legalists. They attempted to cover themselves with man-made righteousness. They planned to cover their shame and guilt themselves which never works. Sadly, many today believe that they will be able to stand before God because of their own works or their own merit. Many mistakingly believe that if they go to church, feed the poor, sing in the choir or just believe that God exists they will be forgiven and a ticket will be waiting for them to heaven. Scripture teaches the opposite!

Recall that Adam and Eve hid from God because they realized their sin and shame. God then curses Satan and banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden signifying that because of their sin they are now not only out of fellowship with God but now at war with Him. (Romans 5:10) That is mankind’s greatest problem. It’s not sickness. It’s not cancer or even poverty. Mankind’s greatest problem is God. God has a righteous and pure anger against sinful man because we have all broken His law. And since He is the author of that law, we have ultimately sinned against Him. As R.C. Sproul so eloquently puts it, “we have committed cosmic treason.” I’ve heard quite a bit from people that say God hates the sin but loves the sinner. There is great truth that God extends His love to those who will by faith embrace His Son for salvation but make note that God sends sinners to hell, not sin. Because of our sin we are born at enmity with God and God is at war with us. Make no mistake, we desperately need to be reconciled to God and there is only one way for that to happen and it’s gloriously illustrated in the end of the third chapter of Genesis.

But there is great hope and that hope is only found in what God Himself provides. Remember that Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their sin and shame. In essence, they did what so many today do in trying to cover themselves with their own works and self-righteousness. They believe that there is something they can do themselves to stand before God. Long before Cain killed Abel, we have a magnificent scene where God kills. Before banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden and setting up cheribum to block the way, God takes an innocent animal and slays it. He takes the skins of that animal and covers Adam and Eve. (Genesis 3:21) Our sin demands death. It demands the shedding of blood. God warned Adam and Eve that if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would surely die. Something did die that day. In their stead it was an innocent animal. This scene gloriously points to Christ – the Lamb of God who was slain for the world.

Adam and Eve needed a righteousness outside of themselves since after the Fall they had absolutely no righteousness of their own. They needed an “alien” righteousness. God striking that animal and clothing Adam and Eve with its skin points us to our only hope. It points us to the perfect life and death of Christ. We not only need to have our sin’s penalty dealt with and God’s wrath satisfied but we also need perfect righteousness credited to us to stand before God. We need nothing less than God’s righteousness. This is exactly what Paul sums up in 2 Corinthians 5:21 when he writes one of the most magnificent verses in Scripture. It reads, “He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we may have the righteousness of God in Him.” God made Christ who was perfectly sinless to take on our sin through imputation so that God’s righteousness and justice would be met on the cross. Through repentance and faith in Christ we have Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to us. It’s the glorious double imputation that should cause us to shout for joy at the wisdom of God. My sin imputed to Christ and Christ’s righteousness imputed to me. The great transaction!

The death of the innocent animal in Genesis chapter three and all the animal sacrifices throughout the Old Testament, and ultimately the death of Christ on that cross should open our eyes to the sinfulness of sin and the fact that God hates sin and must punish sinners. Our sin demands death. Only in Christ is forgiveness found. He is it. It’s not Christ plus works or Christ plus anything. In fact, the true equation is that Christ plus anything equals absolutely nothing. Solus Christus – Christ alone!

Marvel at the love and justice of God displayed at the cross of Christ. Marvel that the only way to be saved from the penalty of our sin is to be in Christ by faith and dressed in the righteousness that only God can give. It pleased God to crush His Son. (Isaiah 53) I believe it pleased Him because it brought ultimate glory to Him by demonstrating to the world His love, mercy, grace, justice, wrath and hatred toward sin at the same time. In ways our finite minds will never be able to fully comprehend, the cross of Christ demonstrates God’s love and His wrath at the exact same time. Thanks be to God for the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Solus Christus!

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My God, My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?

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“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’, that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46

Our Lord never leaves Scripture
“Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Luke 24:27

Let us be amazed at the passion of Christ. Throughout the entire life of our Lord he never, ever leaves Scripture – even during the final hours as He is nailed to a cross. As He cried from that cross every moment of His life is a fulfillment of the majestic promises of Scripture and the fulfillment of all that was planned before the foundation of the world. The spotless Lamb of God came to die – all the while knowing that we would sin and heinously rebel against Him, and “yet while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us.” This is truly amazing grace! Time and time again we read in Holy Writ that Jesus does things and says things “so that the Scripture will be fulfilled.” He is the Word of God – the very Word that became flesh and tabernacled among us.

As two disciples were walking the road to Emmaus we see the amazing truths that the life, death and resurrection of Christ and the glorious truth that everything – absolutely everything was fulfilled in Scripture. Let us recall in Luke 24 how Jesus told the disciples that everything written in the Law and the prophets pointed to Him – the Christ, the Messiah.

My intention in this study is to show from one glorious statement heralded from the cross that every word of Scripture points to Christ. I also seek to challenge a common teaching in Evangelicalism today that teaches that the Father “abandoned and turned away” from His Son on the cross.

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Bible Minute: Water from the Rock

The Bible Minute is a short audio program featuring a Bible topic each week.

This week’s topic focuses on an amazing passage in the book of Exodus that marvelously teaches the gospel of Christ. We’ll see the glorious teaching early in Scripture that God will stand in the place of guilty sinners!  The Scripture reference is Exodus 17:1-7.

Listen to this week’s episode.

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Christ’s Perfect Righteousness

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. John 19:30

“Has Christ perfected and completely finished all His work for us? How sweet a relief is this to them that believe in Him against the defects and imperfections of all our services. There is nothing finished that we do: all our duties are imperfect. Oh there is much sin and vanity in the best of our duties; but here is the grand relief, and that which answers to all our doubts and fears upon that account: Jesus Christ has finished all His work, though we can finish none of ours; and so, though we be defective, poor, imperfect creatures in ourselves, yet we are complete in Him. (Col. 2:9-10) Though we cannot perfectly obey, or fulfill one command of the law, yet is “the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us that believe.” (Rom. 8:4) Christ’s complete obedience makes us complete, and without fault before God. It is true, we ought to be humbled for our defects, and troubled for every failing in obedience; but we should not be discouraged, though multitudes of weaknesses be upon us, and many infirmities compass us about in every duty: though we have no righteousness of our own, yet, of God, Christ “is made unto us righteousness;” and that righteousness is infinitely better than ours: instead of our own, we have His. Oh, blessed be God for Christ’s perfect righteousness!” – John Flavel (from the Fountain of Life, pg. 429)

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The Hideous Howl

If our Lord Jesus Christ had not cried “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me?” on that cross, we would be crying out this hideous howl in the bowels of hell for all eternity: “Oh righteous God, You have forever forsaken me!”

I’ve been slowly reading through probably one of the finest Puritan books ever written entitled The Fountain of Life by John Flavel. Each chapter is a facet of the diamond of the Person and work of Jesus Christ written like only a Puritan can. The statement above is a paraphrase of part of chapter 33 of this excellent treatise on Jesus Christ. I firmly believe that part of what will make heaven so glorious is that we will forever be learning and marveling at Christ. Heaven will be heaven because Christ is there. It truly teaches us that only the Bride of Christ will truly be happy in heaven. Everyone in the world wants to go to heaven – they just don’t want God to be there. But for true believers – the Bride of Christ – one of the many glorious wonders of heaven will be growing in the knowledge of God for all eternity and never reaching the end of Him.

As we marvel at this great truth may we always return to the cross and remember that the cry of our Lord meant that all of God’s goodness was turned away while all of God’s wrath was fully focused on His Son as 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) Believers, because of Christ, will never utter those words. Because of Him who reigns victoriously at the right hand of the Father who drank the cup of wrath we now only have the cup of blessing freely offered to us for all eternity.

Oh how we need to put amazing back into grace!

Soli Deo Gloria

 

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Conflict

ValleyofVision

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, unmovable,; 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 law, 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 from its every snare, refuse to hold polluting dalliance with it.

Bless 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

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The Centrality of Christ

paulwasher

In this excellent sermon, Paul Washer gives great insight into the importance of the difference between a love for Christ and a love for the benefits of Christ. Far too many come to Christ for His benefits which amounts to nothing less than idolatry while there is little or no love for Christ Himself. I agree with Washer that we’ve reduced the gospel down to a series of questions and a signature on a card and forgotten the great and awesome truths of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. May we repent and return to the full proclamation of the full counsel of God’s Word and marvel at the glorious truth that “He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might have the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

[wpaudio url="http://www.jaywingard.com/files/centrality.mp3" text="Paul Washer: The Centrality of Jesus Christ" dl="1"]

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Man a Nothing

O LORD, I am a shell full of dust, but animated with an invisible rational soul and made anew by an unseen power of grace; yet I am no rare object of valuable price, but one that has nothing and is nothing, although chosen of thee from eternity, given to Christ, and born again; I am deeply convinced of the evil and misery of a sinful state, of the vanity of creatures, but also of the sufficiency of Christ.

When thou wouldst guide me I control myself, when thou wouldst be sovereign I rule myself. When thou wouldst take care of me I suffice myself. When I should depend on thy providings I supply myself, when I should submit to thy providence I follow my will, when I should study, love, honour, trust thee, I serve myself; I fault and correct thy laws to suit myself, instead of thee I look to man’s approbation, and am by nature an idolater.

Lord, it is my chief design to bring my heart back to thee. Convince me that I cannot be my own god, or make myself happy, nor my own Christ to restore my joy, nor my own Spirit to teach, guide, rule me. Help me to see that grace does this by providential affliction, for when my credit is god thou dost cast me lower, when riches are my idol thou dost wing them away, when pleasure is my all thou dost turn it into bitterness.

Take away my roving eye, curious ear, greedy appetite, lustful heart; show me that none of these things can heal a wounded conscience, or support a tottering frame, or uphold a departing spirit. Then take me to the cross and leave me there.

From The Valley of Vision – A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

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The Cross Saves Completely

“For the cross saves completely, or not at all. Our faith does not divide the work of salvation between itself and the cross. It is the acknowledgement that the cross alone saves, and it saves alone. Faith adds nothing to the cross nor to its healing virtue. It owns the fullness and the sufficiency and the suitableness of the work done there and bids the toiling spirit cease from its labours and enter into rest. Faith does not come to Calvary to do anything. It comes to see the glorious spectacle of all things done and to accept this completion without misgiving as to its efficacy. It listens to the “It is finished” of the sin-bearer and says “Amen!” Where faith begins, there labour ends–labour, I mean, for life and for pardon. Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up of all the former weary efforts.”

- Horatius Bonar from The Everlasting Righteousness

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The Double Cure of the Cross

“We must understand that Christ’s cross-work not only saves us from the penalty of sin – which is God’s eternal wrath and hell, but also from the power of sin through regeneration and sanctification giving us a new disposition that makes war with sin and new affections bent upward to see Christ as our all in all.”

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Behold the Infinite Love

“Behold the infinite love of God to mankind and the love of Jesus Christ that, rather than God see the children of men to perish eternally, would send His Son to take our nature upon Him and thus suffer such dreadful things. Herein God shows His love… It pleased the Father to break His Son and to pour out His blood. Here is the love of God and of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a power, mighty, drawing, efficacious meditation this should be to us!”

- Jeremiah Burroughs (from Gospel Worship)

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