2017: Brand New Territory

This year has been a whirlwind of changes and challenges. I usually write a New Year's post and a post reflecting on my new birth in Christ (which was Saturday). Time has been limited - and so has mental clarity - and writing has taken a setback to many other things. While I have a few moments to spare (and this is my third day working on this), I thought I would combine my three annual posts (New Year's, spiritual birthday, and Easter) into one. 

So much has happened since I last had the opportunity to write. This year literally began with change as we moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on January 1 for Daniel's new job. I was seven months pregnant at the time. We have had a lot of change in a very short amount of time (new job for Daniel, new church family, new city, new routines, new house, and a new baby). My introverted and routine-oriented self is still coming to grips with it all. Almost nothing is familiar, which is why I titled this post "Brand New Territory." 

As much as I did not enjoy living in the city of Pittsburgh, it was very painful to leave our church family and dear friends at Renaissance. God used the leadership there as well as the members to grow us in what it means to live by grace, to point others to grace, and to live in deep community with other believers. I miss them so much.

One of our biggest fears in leaving Renaissance was that we wouldn't be able to find a church where living in community with out believers was so central. The Lord was so very kind to connect us to Safe Have Church - Big Sandy the first week we arrived in Tuscaloosa. It wasn't long before the Lord started giving us new friends and opportunities to serve within the church. Even though the people there hardly knew us, they took it upon themselves to take care of us when we arrived and when our son was born. It will take time to develop the depths of friendships that we crave, but we are excited for what God has in store for us in and through this local body of believers. 

During the first month, I spent most of my time cleaning our new house (yep - we're home owners now!) and making it feel like home. I wanted to do a lot of the deep cleaning before our baby boy was born. I thought I had more time than I did, but he surprised us by coming two and a half weeks early. Justus Garrison* was born on Valentine's Day, weighing in at 8 pounds, 10 ounces. 

This is not only new territory for us, but uncharted territory. 

I expect this new year to keep up the theme of new territory as we settle in here and grow in parenting Justus. Even though we don't really have to teach him much in the way of verbal lessons, we can already see our lack of wisdom and strength for this awesome task.

As almost everyone had warned us, the first few weeks were rough. Add to this the fact that Justus was admitted into the hospital when he was two weeks old with omphalitis (an infection in his umbilical cord stump). He was in the hospital for a total of 9 days. It was a very difficult and dark time. It was so hard to see him poked and prodded so much. He had to receive strong doses of IV antibiotics and his IV blew 4 times. Every time they had to do a new IV, they had to stick him multiple times before they could get it to take. It was almost unbearable to watch. I struggled with understanding how this could be for Justus's good and became angry at God as the week wore on for allowing everything to be so hard and painful. He reminded me that He knew intimately what it was like to watch His Son suffer. 

Indeed, that is why we celebrate Easter. God was not only willing for His Son to suffer to save a people for Himself, but He ordained it (Isaiah 53). I confess that this truth, as marvelous as it is, only brought me a little comfort at the time. My heart was embittered towards my heavenly Father for what He was permitting to happen to Justus. I have since repented of my hardness of heart and apathetic spirit - which is why Jesus had to die, to save hard-hearted sinners like me. The cross of Christ proves the depths of God's love for me, even though I had lost sight of that at the time.

I mentioned that Saturday was my spiritual birthday - the day when Jesus Christ gave me new spiritual life (John 3). It has now been 16 years of following the Lord. As I grow in faith and in the knowledge of Him, I realize more and more how much I need His grace. He saved me by His grace and He sustains me by His grace. I bring nothing to the table, except the sin that required His death on my behalf. The Lord reminded me today as I reflected on Him saving me that it is only by His grace that I still believe in Him. It's only by His grace that I did not walk away from the Christian faith when enduring that dark week at the hospital with Justus. We never outgrow our need for the gospel. We need it to save us from our sin and bring us to God and we need it to continue believing in God until we reach Heaven, where our faith will become sight. Reflecting on these truths helps me see Easter, as well as my spiritual birthday, in a different light. These were not just events that happened in the past, but they are events that continue to impact the here and now. 

As Christians, we have much to rejoice in as we think about the Lenten season leading up to Resurrection Sunday. Our sins have been paid for. We have been redeemed. Perfect obedience has been imputed to us. We have been made right with God. We have been adopted as His sons and daughters forever. We have been given the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us. And God Himself will see to it that we endure in faith until the end. Celebrate God's grace with me this Easter season. Without it, we would be hopeless and dead in our sins. But God, being rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5)!

Photo credit: Gary Franklin Photography (www.garyfranklinphoto.com)

*We chose the name Justus (besides the fact that we just liked the name) because we liked its meaning ("just"). Plus, I liked how it was a biblical name (though not a common one). Garrison is a play off my dad's name, Gary, and means "fortified stronghold" and "son of Gary." 

A Special Friday

And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified [Jesus], and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”  Luke 23:33-35

Yesterday was Good Friday. It also marked the 15th year anniversary of when I became a Christian, of when God saved me from myself for Himself. I had every reason in the world to be joyful yesterday. But I wasn't. Instead, I was irritable, grumbling inwardly, and wanted to be alone. Instead of focusing on how much I had to be thankful for (I mean, literally, yesterday symbolized the very foundation of gratitude), I was focusing on how well I didn't sleep the night before, how upset my stomach felt, and how dreary and cold the weather was. The skies were very gray, which is not uncommon to Pittsburgh, much like my melancholy attitude.

I even had a very fruitful time reading a couple of meditations yesterday morning about Good Friday, which was in the Holy Week devotional I have been reading this week. Through those readings, God allowed me to sense some of the weight and burden of what Jesus went through on the cross; more than just the physical agony, but the isolation and emptiness of Him being separated from His heavenly Father. And as much as this reading gripped me and drew me near to the throne of God's grace, I still couldn't shake the way I was feeling. I was struggling to fight for joy.

But then evening came, which brought with it the Good Friday service at Renaissance Church. It was just what I needed to refocus and reset, to remember what Christ had done for me. During the service, we raised our voices in praise to Jesus, who paid the penalty for our sins by dying on the cross, and we focused on the seven statements He made as He hung there in agony. The final words of a dying man. A man who was more than a man; this was the Creator of the universe sacrificing Himself for His rebellious and helpless creatures.

During the service, the Lord convicted me of my sinful attitude: of my grumbling heart and loveless disposition. I did have every reason to rejoice. When I was 17, God saved me. It wasn't because He saw anything good in me. I thought I was good. I thought He would be lucky to have me. But I wasn't good enough to warrant His attention and affection and rescue. It wasn't that I didn't believe in His existence, that was instilled in me in childhood; it's that I was apathetic to Him. When I heard the truth of my need for Him, I didn't react. I pondered, I considered, but I did nothing. So, in essence, I was rejecting Jesus and the work He did for me on the cross. I thought my good deeds were good enough and that I didn't need a sinless substitute to take God's away anger toward my sin. In fact, I didn't think God was angry with me at all, and if He was, I was the one to do something about it, not Jesus.

Like everyone else, I wanted to live life my own way. I was living for the approval of others and for my own esteem and benefit. But it was in the midst of this selfish pursuit that God began chasing after me. The words from the sermons at church started to grab my heart. I didn't totally understand why I needed Jesus in my life, but I couldn't get away from the idea that I did. The thought kept infringing itself upon my mind until I couldn't resist anymore. I needed Jesus. So, on Saturday evening when I got home from work on March 25, 2001, I told my dad I wanted to become a Christian, not even knowing what that really meant. He led me in a prayer of repentance for my sins and of asking Jesus to be the Savoir and Lord of my life. The words weren't magical. I didn't feel any tingling sensations or anything, but I did feel peace and purpose. I had this newfound resolve (strength from God) to follow Jesus and learn more about Him. In some sense, I realized that I belonged to another. Someone else would be calling the shots in my life.

As I read the meditations about Good Friday and sung the lyrics to the songs at the service and listened to the sermonette on Jesus being forsaken by God on the cross as He bore the sins of all His people, I couldn't help but think about how on this day 2000-plus years ago, Jesus died to set me free from sin and death and to bring me into a relationship with God, and how 15 years ago, Jesus cashed in that payment, so to speak, to make His sacrifice a reality in my life, to gain the prize for which He died. He not only became sin while on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21), He became my sin. He not only faced the full wrath of God against sin, He faced the full wrath of God against my sin. It was the punishment that I deserved. Jesus never did or thought or said anything wrong. He wasn't apathetic to the things of God. He didn't grumble when things didn't go His way. He wasn't irritable or antisocial. Yet He paid for penalty as if He did. In fact, He became the very ugliness that lies in the crevices of my heart: the thoughts and motives and attitudes I wouldn't want anyone to see (and they wouldn't want to see them either). But Jesus sees them and instead of leaving me in disgust and sending me to hell (which would have been just), He took on flesh and then died, becoming those very things, in order that He could defeat sin and death and set me free and make me new.

One of the things Jesus said from the cross before He died was, "It is finished." The purpose for which He was born had been accomplished. He in some mysterious way took on the sins of the world and drunk the symbolic cup of God's fury against sin and unrighteousness while He was on the cross. And so those three words from Jesus continue to ring true for every one who trusts in Him. "It is finished." He speaks those words over every believer, including me.

And so last night, I recommitted myself to the Lord, giving Him the blank check of my life. Whatever He wants for me, I want it. Wherever He wants me to go, I'll go. That's what following Him means and that's what trusting Him looks like. He gave everything for me; the least I can do is live completely for Him. And by His grace and strength, I won't grumble about whatever He has in store, but will rejoice in all that God is for me and has done for me in Christ.

The Remedy

I have been thinking about my dad this past week…and about how much I hate cancer. There were a few things that triggered this; one being a movie in which the character lost a loved one to cancer. It wasn’t even shown or a main aspect of the movie, but it doesn’t take much to remind me of all the horrors and destruction cancer entails.

As I thought about how much I hate cancer, I also thought about how much sin is like cancer (I hate sin too). Sin often lies hidden beneath the surface, growing silently, taking what is good and using it to grow and conquer, stealing life. That’s how sin works and that’s how cancer works. Of course, the parallels aren’t perfect. We are all born with sin; it is ingrained in who we are. Not everyone will get cancer. Cancer is something other than us, outside of us, foreign. Sin is usually attractive on the surface; there is nothing attractive about cancer. But cancer and sin both lead to destruction, both ravish who we are, and both wreck our lives as well as the lives of those around us.

Sin, however is a lot more deadly. Cancer only affects this earthly life. The affects of sin are eternal. Cancer can sometimes be cut out or even cured with radiation and/or chemo (another thing I hate). Sin cannot be cut out and there is no earthly treatment for it. But there is a remedy. It's a divine one. That is why we celebrate Easter. God did what we could not do. He crushed sin and removed its power over us (1 Cor. 15:55-57). He made His Perfect Son, who came to earth and never sinned, to become sin so that God could punish every sin ever committed in His Son on the cross (2 Cor. 5:21; Romans 8:3). God took the punishment for us in order that we could have life - eternal life, full life, joy-filled life (John 3:16, 10:10; Prov. 16:11). All those who place their trust in Jesus are considered cleansed from sin and have His perfect record credited to them.

And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3

God predicted hundreds of years before Jesus was born that He would do this. And at the right time, He did. He sent His Son to take away the sin of the world (Gal. 4:4; John 1:29; Romans 5:6).

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:3-6

Jesus Christ is the remedy. There is now a way for us to be free from sin and to have life and freedom in God, for us to know God and have a unbroken relationship with Him. By His own blood, Jesus purchased for us what we could not purchase for ourselves. God requires a perfect sacrifice and He willingly became that sacrifice for us. He lived for us. He died for us. And He was raised from the dead for us to live again. He came, He conquered, and now He reigns, beckoning all to come to Him, to believe in Him, to learn from Him, to obtain the eternal life and joy in Him. So, come; taste and see that the Lord is good.

Love Fulfills the Law

One of the things that the Lord has been pressing upon my heart these last several weeks is how love fulfills His law (His perfect standard, requirements, and will). “Every sin is a failure in love” (Elyse Fitzpatrick, Because He Loves Me). No wonder Jesus can say that to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself sums up the entirety of God’s law (Matthew 22:34-40; cf. Matthew 7:12). He said these were were the greatest commandment. The Apostle Paul says the same thing:

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. Romans 13:8-10

And again:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13-14

This is incredibly hard for us. We love God and others far from perfectly. We tend to focus on our own little kingdoms and put our own desires, preferences, and needs before those of others. We are selfish to the core and selfish people don’t love others perfectly  (which is what God requires of us), no matter how hard we may try or desire. Which means – and this is the bad news – we constantly break God’s standard, storing up for ourselves His just wrath (Romans 2:5; John 3:36).

But, thankfully, there is good news. There is a remedy available purchased by God Himself. The Bible says He is love (1 John 4:8), and He showed His great love for us “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus came to earth to live the perfectly life that we could not. He loved and served God perfectly and He loved and served others perfectly. He always put the needs of others before His own, so much so that He willingly gave His life to save people from sin and death and eternal punishment (which the Christian world will be celebrating next Sunday). Jesus Christ fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, so that those of us who follow Him would have His perfect record of loving others credited to us (Romans 8:4). He loved God and others perfectly for us.

Now He commands us to imitate Him. He calls us to love as He loved (John 13:34). And how did He love? He loved sacrificially, humbling, and to the uttermost.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Romans 2:3-8

This is a high calling. But we are not to try to do it on our own. Those who know and love God have His Spirit in them, which gives them the desire and ability to obey His commands (Romans 8:9; Philippians 2:13). And this love that we display for God by loving others is an overflow of the work He has already done for and in us. We can love and serve others, we can consider their interests above our own, exactly because we have been loved, forgiven, adopted, accepted, and given a hope and future in Jesus Christ. We are secure in Him, so we have no need to be jealous or strive to make our name great or defend our reputation or fear rejection or failure because in Christ we have a new name, a new identity, an eternal home, and we have been forever accepted by God. This is what every human heart longs for ultimately – acceptance/belongingness, security, and purpose. If you are in Christ, you have all of those things and more (see Ephesians 1:3).

What does this look like? It varies depending on where you are and what you are doing on a daily basis, but at the bare-bones level, it simply means serving others, treating others the way you want to be treated (Matthew 7:12). One practical example, one in which I failed out, comes to mind. As the Lord was starting to bring all the above to my mind, He used a concrete example to burn it into my mind. I was driving to work one day and saw someone’s garbage can in the middle of the opposing lane. It was a windy day and the wind had rolled it out onto the road. I watched as cars swerved to go around it. Later, on my way home from work, the trash can was still in the road – this time in my lane. I watched as the two cars in front of me swerved to go around it. The thought “came” to me that I should pull over and move the trash can to the side of the road. I thought about it, but when the moment came, I drove around it instead. As I pondered my decision, I asked myself, “Is it okay that I didn’t move that trash can out of the way? Was it my responsibility to?” Then the Lord’s words came rushing to my mind about loving one’s neighbor and doing good to one’s neighbor, which fulfills the law. The question isn’t, “Is it my responsibility?”, but, “What is the most loving action here?” To which the answer would of course be: pull over and pick up the trash can.

Before ending, I would also like to point out that loving others is proof that we belong to God. If someone claims to know Christ, to be a Christian, and doesn’t show love to others (not perfectly, of course, but consistently), then it is questionable if he or she knows Christ at all. At least that is what the Apostle John says:

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:10

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 1 John 4:20

As our word grows colder and more selfish and loveless, the words of Christ will seem even truer:

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

The world will know that we are Christians by our love for one another. Thank God for His great love displayed most potently in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Take this week before Easter Sunday to meditate on this demonstration of God's great love (John 3:16).

Chosen and Proven Love

Resurrection Weekend (aka Easter Weekend) and the days leading up to it flew by in a whirlwind of activity. I usually take some time during this time of year to reflect on what is known as Holy Week and to place special attention on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I continued this tradition this year, but I wasn’t able to deeply reflect on the meaning of Easter as much as I would have liked.

Yet, God in His grace still helped me understand the depths of His love and the power of the gospel in a fresh way this year. He led me to a short Holy Week devotional called Love to the Uttermost by John Piper that helped greatly guide and focus my thoughts regarding the Easter story. This is the central and most crucial event in the Christian faith (as in, without it, we have no faith), so even though it deserves our constant reflection and attention, it is fitting to set aside specific time to ponder the depths of its reality and truth.

There seems to be several key words that encapsulate what God has been showing me about Jesus’ death and resurrection this year: joy, delight, choice, and love. All of them are related and all of them find their source in God, not in me – as in Jesus showed me it was the Father’s and His delight and joy and choice and love for Him to suffer, die on the cross, and then come back to life three days later. As Piper said over and over in his devotional, this extravagant love was a free love and it was driven by joy. The Father freely chose to send His Son to save rebellious, sinful people from eternal torment and separation from Him in hell, and the Son freely chose to give His live as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). The greatest and truest expression of love is a love that is given freely, not out of duty or coercion.

It was the Father’s delight to send His Son as the perfect substitute for sinners (John 3:16; 1 John 3:9-11). He freely chose to do so. He chose to set His love on us, even though we were spiritually dead in our sins (Ephesians 1:3-10; 2:1-10). God was not under any obligation whatsoever to do this. There was nothing in us that was desirable or that warranted His attention or affection (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; 10:15). There was nothing we did or could do to earn His favor or love because even the good things we think we do are filthy according to His perfect standard (Isaiah 65:6; Romans 3:23). So God didn’t owe us anything that He should set His love on us or show us favor. 

Furthermore, it was Jesus’ delight to do His Father’s will (Psalm 40:8) and to save a people for Himself (Hebrews 12:2). He freely chose to die a gruesome death in order to do so. His life was His to give over to death and it was His to bring back from the dead (John 10:17-18). No one took His life from Him in the ultimate sense; He freely chose to lay it down. He freely chose to endure the cross because of the joy and glory and reward that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). That reward was a people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people that would be His treasured possession and that would sing His praises forever and ever (Revelation 7:9-10). So God demonstrates His love through the death of His Son Jesus Christ to save a people for Himself.

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

What more can He do to prove His love for us (something God has asked me when I've doubted or questioned His love for me)? Nothing. The life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of God’s love for His chosen people. It is something we will never fully grasp or explore or exhaust, but it is real. And it’s reality is rooted in history: in the real, historical person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. God’s love is not abstract. Not at all. It was displayed in the most critical event of all of human history. 

So God chose a people for Himself and then He pursues that people and rescues that people by sending His Son to die in their place in order that He can be with His people for all of eternity. That’s grace. That’s love – love that’s chosen and proven. That is love to the uttermost (John 13:1).

This is the center of the gospel—this is what the Garden
of Gethsemane and Good Friday are all about—that God
has done astonishing and costly things to draw us near. He
has sent his Son to suffer and to die so that through him
we might draw near. It’s all so that we might draw near.
And all of this is for our joy and for his glory. Piper, Love to the Uttermost (page 28)

On a slightly different note, I have been thinking about how the resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter morning gives us such hope for our future resurrection to life with Him. I have been thinking about this especially in regards to my dad. Because of Jesus’ victory over death and His resurrection, my dad too will have victory over death and will be raised to new life. Because of Jesus’ resurrection, I will one day be re-united with my dad…but in much, much better circumstances. :)

He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 25:8

Jesus, Thank You

Today is Good Friday, commemorating the darkest day in history when Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, was brutally tortured, crucified, and killed. He chose this fate in submission to God’s will, and it was planned before the beginning of time (Acts 4:28; Ephesians 1:4) so that He might save a rebellious people for Himself, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:12, 14).

It’s a pretty awesome to think that we serve such a God. He is completely other than us. He is holy. He is perfect. He is the essence of everything good and lovely and sovereign. And He, in His lavish grace and indescribable love and perfect justice, chose to make a way for us to know Him. For we were dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2:10), alienated from God (Ephesians 4:18), and were blinded to God and His goodness by the devil and our own sin (2 Corinthians 4:4). We were in such a helpless and pathetic state that we did not even know that we needed to be saved. But God saw our need and He planned a way to save us. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to live the perfect live He requires, to die the death required by our sins, and then to come back to life to demonstrate His victory over sin, death, and Satan. God went to great lengths in order to save us. He held back nothing and gave everything (John 3:16). This is the gospel. This is why we celebrate this holiday called Easter. God gave His life for us (1 John 3:16). He willingly set Himself aside, gave up His rights, so that He could do for us what we could not do for ourselves (Philippians 2:5-11).

Jesus Christ did all of this for the joy set before (Hebrews 12:1-2). He was looking to the reward, which we get a glimpse of in the book of Revelation.

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5:9-14

This is Christ’s reward. He will receive the glory and praise due His name. He desires for every people group to be among this number recorded above in Revelation 5. This is the reward for which He was slain. This is His Bride, the Church. And Jesus deserves all praise and glory.

So, Jesus, thank You. Thank You for leaving the praises of heaven in order to live on this messy earth as a man for 33 years. Thank You for obeying the will of the Father. Thank You that You chose me from before the foundation of the world and that You did all that was required to save me. Thank You that You are all I need, that You have united me with You forever. Thank You that You are my Hope and Strength, and that in You are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Thank You that I know You; that I am Yours and You are mine (!). Jesus, thank You for everything. May my life be a testament to who You are and to what You have done. For You, Jesus, are my Reward.

Your blood has washed away my sin
Jesus, thank You
The Father’s wrath completely satisfied
Jesus, thank You
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table
Jesus, thank You

 

The Wrath and the Blood, part 2

In the last post, I talked about God's wrath - His holy anger - against us because we constantly reject Him and His law. God's wrath has been building up against us and He says He is weary of holding it in (Jeremiah 6:11). But in His wrath, God remembered mercy (Micah 5:15) and in His compassion, He has atoned for our sins (Psalm 78:38). He did this by sending His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to live and die in our place, to take the punishment we deserve.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11

Jesus Christ left the glory and honor of heaven in order to take on human flesh and live the life we are created and called to live (but we don't, Romans 3:23). He perfectly obeyed every single one of God's commandments. He perfectly loved God and others. He was the perfect Man and He was the perfect sacrifice (the sacrifice that all the sacrifices of the Old Testament were pointing towards). Then He died the most gruesome death, bearing the weight of our sins and absorbing the full weight of God's wrath against us. His slaughter means the appeasement of God's wrath. His slaughter saves us (Isaiah 53:4-7). The Lord Jesus knew this was His calling, His purpose. It was planned before the foundations of the world (Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8). The cup of God's wrath was given to Him to drink and He drunk every drop of it. When He was in the garden praying fervently to the Father because He knew His time of sacrifice was near, He asked the Father to remove this cup from Him if it was possible, but it wasn't (Mark 14:6). He didn't dread the beatings. He didn't dread the whip of cords. He didn't dread the nails and the cross or the mockings. He dreaded the alienation from God (Matthew 27:46). He had always been in perfect fellowship with the Father and for the first time, God the Father would turn away from His Son while His Son took on the sins of the whole world. I cannot even imagine the spiritual weight of this. Sometimes the Lord allows me to see a glimpse of the ugliness of my sin, but it's just a glimpse...and it is extremely ugly...and Christ bore all of it. He refused to numb the pain (Matthew 27:34) and bore it all and then He declared it was finished (John 19:30). The wrath of God against His people for their sins was completely absorbed by the perfect Son of God. He delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10). He bought us with His blood. That was the price and He paid it (1 Corinthians 6:20). In full.

This is really good news. This is the reason we celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. This is what we will be celebrating for all eternity. And it will never grow old.

   And they sang a new song, saying,
    “Worthy are You, O Christ, to take the scroll
        and to open its seals,
    for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God
        from every tribe and language and people and nation,
    and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
        and they shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:9-10

The Wrath and the Blood, part 1

Today is Good Friday. It seems to be an occasion that is barely noticed anymore. I admit myself that Easter weekend snuck up on me and I have not had the time I usually do each year to concentrate more fully on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This event that stands at the pinnacle of history is something we believers need to be thinking about on a daily basis, not just during the time that we call Easter, but I think it is good that we have this designated time of the year that focuses our hearts and minds on the event the originated and defines our faith.

I have lately been thinking about God’s wrath (anger) against sin and sinners. It is not something that we Christians like to talk about. We prefer to talk about God’s unconditional love and His rescue of us, which is all true and good, but it is not the full story. In our zeal to proclaim God’s love shown in Christ to the world, we forget to tell the whole story, to describe the full nature of God as He has revealed in His Word. Before people can truly appreciate what Jesus Christ did on the cross, they have to see their need for His work. They have to see their need for a Savior and, in order for us to see our need for a Savior, we have to know what we need saving from. Yes, we need saving from our sins. Yes, we need saving from hell. Yes, we need saving from ourselves. But, most of all, we need to be saved from God. Now, I know that fact alarms people. We tend to depict God as this lovey-dovey teddy bear that winks at the wrong by His tolerant, “unconditional” love. God is love, yes. God is good, yes. God longs for all people to know Him, yes. But God is also completely holy and just. While He is a very personal God, He is completely other than us. He is perfect; we are not. Already we have a problem. His purity cannot look on our impurity (Psalm 5:4). He is the standard of perfection (Deuteronomy 32:4). He makes the rules, but we break them…every single day. We all know we’re not perfect. It’s even become a part of our everyday lingo, “Look. Nobody’s perfect.” Nobody, that is, except for God. And Perfection cannot dwell with imperfection. And the bad news is there is nothing we can do about it. Once you’re not perfect, you can never become perfect. Once you’ve made one mistake, it’s over. 

That’s bad news, but it gets worse. Not only does our imperfection, our sins, our breaking of God’s law, separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2), but they kindle His holy anger against us (2 Kings 22:13). We are constantly breaking God’s law (the ones written in His Word and the one written on our consciences) and what does law-breaking require? Punishment. God is infinite in being and we have infinitely offended Him; therefore, we deserve infinite punishment. God is not only love, but He is just. Someone has to pay the price for the wrongs that we commit. We cannot outdo the bad things we have done by trying to do enough good things. God declares that our righteousness deeds are as filth to Him (Isaiah 64:6). If you look at the other religions of the world, they are trying to do exactly like – earn their salvation by keeping “the rules” and doing as much good as they can in this lifetime. Christianity is different. There is no cosmic scale because, the truth is, we could never earn our way into God’s favor. We don’t deserve His forgiveness and He would be right to annihilate us because we offend Him every single day (Psalm 7:11). We are storing up wrath for ourselves (Romans 2:5). His anger burns hot against us (Exodus 32:10; Jonah 3:9). The power of His wrath against us all apart from Christ (Ezra 8:22), yet, we do not consider this (Psalm 90:11). Even though God’s wrath has been revealed to us, we suppress the truth (Romans 1:18). We do not want Him or His ways (John 1:10-11).

God’s wrath in the Bible is described as a cup, one that is full to the brim with His anger (Isaiah 51:17, 22; Matthew 26:39; Revelation 14:10). It’s a cup that must be drunk in order for God’s justice to be satisfied, but it’s a cup we cannot endure. It’s a cup that means our destruction. BUT there is a remedy. Blood.

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22

The news hasn’t got much better has it? I mean, this sounds a little messy. Whose blood? Well, it has to be perfect (that rules us out). This passage in the Book of Hebrews is talking about the sacrificial system described in the Old Testament part of the Bible. You know, those books that most people like to skip through that has all the detailed rules and sacrificial how-to’s and temple blueprints and many things we find dreadfully boring to read and non-applicable to us. Well the truth is those passages are very applicable to us. Every Word of God is profitable (2 Timothy 3:16-17). These passages are telling us something – something about God, about ourselves and about our relationship with Him. God told His people they had to make sacrifices every single day on behalf of every single person; and then on top of that at a special time once a week; and then on top of that at a special time once a month; and then on top of that at a special time once a year. That’s a lot of sacrificing. That’s a lot of animals. That’s a lot of blood.

 The once a year time was called the Day of Atonement and on that day, the man appointed as the high priest would go into the Most Holy Place, symbolizing God’s presence, and offer a sacrifice for all the sins of all the people (including his own). This was to stay God’s wrath for another year. And the day after the Day of Atonement, the daily sacrifices continued because “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin” (Hebrews 10:4).

"What do you think the sovereign God of the universe, the Judge of all was doing when He ordered this system? He was making the children of Israel stare at an animal about to have its life extinguished. He was making them smell it and see it and hear it. He was making them watch its throat cut and its blood spurt out and to watch the blood being caught in a vessel while the animals eyes started to glaze over. The children of Israel had to watch an animal twitch until it stopped twitching and then they saw the priest go into the Most Holy Place and “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.” Why in the world did God choose this mechanism? It’s known only to His own sovereign determination, but its crudeness seems to be the very central part of it. God is making sinful humanity, even the sinners who are part of His covenant people, stare at this thing and see it and smell it and hear it and know that its crudeness is just a hint of the infinite horror of the offense of sin." Dr. Mohler, “The God Who Saves,” 2011 Expositors Conference

But this sacrificial system does not satisfy God’s wrath, it just abates it for a season. There is a better remedy, a permanent one. God’s saw that we could not save ourselves, so He accomplished our salvation. He provided a way to satisfy His own wrath. It’s still bloody. It still requires a sacrifice. But this time the blood is His own. (Acts 20:28). More on that in the next post.

Let Us GO to Him

Today is Good Friday. The day that Jesus suffered and died on the cross, fulfilling the very purpose for which He came to earth. To reflect on the weight of this day, listen to this. Jesus took on the full wrath (anger) of God that was meant for us. He did not deserve the punishment. We did. Yet He bore it willingly. He suffered outside the camp (Hebrews 13:11-3) - away from the comforts and prestige of Jerusalem. And He calls His followers to join Him there (outside the camp). According to John Piper, this means leaving our comfortable lives to live in radical obedience to Christ. Relating to those who are different from us, going somewhere we have never gone and doing things we have never done for the sake of Christ are all ways to go "outside the camp." Jesus did not call His followers to huddle together in isolation from the rest of the world. In fact, He prayed that the Father would not take them out of the world (John 17:5). The footnote on John 17:5 in the ESV study bible puts it like this:

The place of believers during this lifetime is not to withdraw from the world but to remain in the world and influence it continually for good, as difficult as that may be. 

So the call to us who follow Christ is to go.

And Jesus said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20

Go to Jesus outside the camp. Go to the nations. Go and make disciples. Go. This does not necessarily mean that you have to pack your bag and move overseas (though it can mean that), but that you are always willing to be about the Father's business - wherever and whatever that means. This going looks differently in each of our lives. For me, it means going to the internationals that God has brought to Louisville and building relationships with them. It also means going to clubs to serve women who sell their bodies to make ends meet. For all of us it means that we are willing to give ourselves completely to Christ and His cause the way He gave Himself completely for us. While Jesus was on earth, He was constantly moving from place to place, putting aside Himself in order to meet the needs of others. Then He gave Himself in the ultimate sense by giving His life. The sermon I heard last week talked about this fact and really got me thinking: how much do I hold back from those I am serving? I need to give myself more fully to those around me - whether in ministry to nonbelievers or in fellowship with believers. It's not about me or my schedule or my desires, but about Christ and serving others in His name with the strength He supplies. It is not about just getting to know those I am serving, but allowing them to get to know me as well.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured. For here we have no lasting city but we seek the city that is to come. Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. Hebrews 13:12-16