The Precious Blood of Christ

Standing at the foot of the cross, we see hands, and feet, and side, all distilling crimson streams of precious blood.

It is "precious" because of its redeeming and atoning efficacy.

By it, the sins of Christ's people are atoned for;
   they are redeemed from under the law;
      they are reconciled to God, made one with him.

Christ's blood is also "precious" in its cleansing power;

it "cleanseth from all sin."
   "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

Through Jesus' blood there is not a spot left upon any believer, no wrinkle nor any such thing remains. O precious blood, which makes us clean, removing the stains of abundant iniquity, and permitting us to stand accepted in the Beloved, notwithstanding the many ways in which we have rebelled against our God.

The blood of Christ is likewise "precious" in its preserving power.  We are safe from the destroying angel under the sprinkled blood. Remember it is God's seeing the blood which is the true reason for our being spared. Here is comfort for us when the eye of faith is dim, for God's eye is still the same.

The blood of Christ is "precious" also in its sanctifying influence. The same blood which justifies by taking away sin, does in its after-action, quicken the new nature and lead it onward to subdue sin and to follow out the commands of God. There is no motive for holiness so great as that which streams from the veins of Jesus.

And "precious," unspeakably precious, is this blood, because it has an overcoming power. It is written, "They overcame through the blood of the Lamb." How could they do otherwise? He who fights with the precious blood of Jesus, fights with a weapon which cannot know defeat.

The blood of Jesus!
  sin dies at its presence,
    death ceases to be death:
      heaven's gates are opened.

The blood of Jesus!
  we shall march on,
    conquering and to conquer,
      so long as we can trust its power!

(C.H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, Morning, April 16)

Bearing the cross for and with Jesus

"On him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus."
Luke 23:26

We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church throughout all generations; she is the cross-bearer after Jesus. Mark then, Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer.

But let us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon's, it is not our cross, but Christ's cross which we carry. When you are molested for your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you, then remember it is not your cross, it is Christ's cross; and how delightful is it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus!

You carry the cross after him. You have blessed company; your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. The mark of his blood-red shoulder is upon that heavy burden. 'Tis his cross, and he goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep. Take up your cross daily, and follow him.

Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried one end of the cross, and not the whole of it. That is very possible; Christ may have carried the heavier part, against the transverse beam, and Simon may have borne the lighter end. Certainly it is so with you; you do but carry the light end of the cross, Christ bore the heavier end.

And remember, though Simon had to bear the cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honour. Even so the cross we carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown, the glory. Surely we should love the cross, and, instead of shrinking from it, count it very dear, when it works out for us "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."

(C.H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, Morning, April 5)

All I Have is Christ

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted

Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis a true and faithful Word.

Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting his distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.

Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.

Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name of which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.

Why God Created the Universe — For Good Friday

1. The apex of God’s display of his own glory is the display of his grace.

“God predestined . . . according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6). Grace is the endpoint in the revelation of God’s glory.
This is seen in the way wrath serves to make God more glorious for the vessels of mercy. “Desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, God has endured with much patience vessels of wrath . . . in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy” (Romans 9:22–23).

2.  God’s glorification of his grace was planned before creation.

“God chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:4–6).

3. God’s glorification of his grace was to happen through the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

“He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ . . . to the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5–6).
“God called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9).

 4. From eternity the apex of God’s glorification of his grace was designed to be Christ’s crucifixion for sinners.

Before there was any human sin to die for, God planned that his Son be slain for sinners. We know this because of the name given to the book of life before creation. “Everyone [will worship the beast] whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8).

5. God’s glorification of his grace in the crucifixion of his Son for sinners was the ultimate purpose for creating the universe.

“All things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). For all eternity we will sing “the song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:3). We will say, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain” (Revelation 5:9).

6. Therefore God planned from eternity that the revelation of his glory would be the ultimate reason for creating the universe.

This glory would be supremely displayed in God’s grace. This grace would be supremely glorified in Jesus. And the apex of that glorification in Jesus would be reached when he was slain to save a people who would spend eternity magnifying the greatness of that grace.  In other words the universe was created for the glorification of God’s grace at Calvary, echoing through eternity in the Christ-exalting joys of the redeemed.

 [John Piper from desiringGod.org]

In Christ Alone

Was 3 Hours of Suffering Enough?

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

If our sins are punished by eternal separation from God, why did Jesus only have to suffer momentary separation?

That's a good question, and I think there's a pretty clear answer.

Another question would be, How can one man suffer when millions should've suffered? Same kind of issue. How does one suffering become the suffering of millions? The math doesn't work! How does suffering for 3 hours on a cross correspond to delivering people from eternity in hell? All those kinds of questions apply here.

The answer is that the degree of suffering, indignity, reproach, degradation, and fall that Jesus endured is not simply determined temporally. And it's not simply determined by the exquisiteness of the pain of a nail cutting through a nerve in your wrist.

It's determined by the difference between the glory that he had with the Father in heaven and the ignominy that he suffered, naked and hanging like a piece of meat as the Son of God on the cross. It's that distance that is the magnitude that provides the scope needed in his suffering to cover an eternity in hell and to cover the sins of millions of people.

The way to think about it is that we commit a greater indignity against God, not just in accord with how many sins we commit or how bad they are, but in accord with how great he is. Therefore our sins are infinitely great because they're against an infinite person and deserve an infinite punishment.

Christ, being an infinite person, became so low that that drop in suffering, that drop in indignity was such a huge drop—it was an infinite drop—that it suffices to cover the sins of millions and to cover the entire length of eternity that we deserve to be in hell.

He is a great Savior.

[source: http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2326_was_3_hours_of_suffering_enough/]

Flowers for the Crown

The Flowers for the Crown

“In that day the Lord of hosts will become a beautiful crown and a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people”
(Isaiah 28:5)

George MacDonald (1824-1905), a Scottish preacher and teacher who was considered one of the most original of nineteenth century thinkers by his contemporaries, wrote this poem:

"I said: 'Let me walk in the field;'
God said: 'Nay, walk in the town;'
I said: 'There are no flowers there;'
He said: 'No flowers, but a crown.'"

"I said: 'But the sky is black,
There is nothing but noise and din;'
But He wept as He sent me back,
'There is more,' He said, 'there is sin.'"

"I said: 'But the air is thick,
and fogs are veiling the sun;'
He answered: 'Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone.'"

"I said: 'I shall miss the light,
and friends will miss me they say;'
He answered me, 'Choose tonight,
If I am to miss you, or they.'"

"I pleaded for time to be given;
He said: 'Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in Heaven,
To have followed the steps of your Guide.'"

"I cast one look at the fields,
Then set my face to the town;
He said: 'My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?'"

"Then into His hand went mine,
And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light Divine,
The path I had feared to see."

That poem is our story. We draw back from giving ourselves to the Lord because we fear what might happen. He may send us someplace we don't want to go and we might lose control, which is exactly what we need to do! When we let Him have utter control, we will discover that the place we did not want to go is the place we should have been, all this time. If you win (in relation to God) you lose. If you lose control and give yourself to Him, you win.

The poem, in another way, is the story of our Savior. He was in the paradise of God and did not need to experience the awfulness of this "nest" we have fouled. He was completely without sin and remains so - forever! The Innocent One gave up everything and died for the world. All those "sacrifices" in the Book of Leviticus were advance "pictures," parables of what the Son would do for you and me.

Christmas! We think of the baby in the manger, and we should! The Lord of Lords, King of Glory, gave up even His ability to speak, to control bodily functions - everything; that He might become utterly a part of this human race. He and Mary cooed at one another, in Bethlehem, one night so long ago. He was a human child and she had just birthed the Savior of all mankind. As Isaiah the Prophet had foretold, so long ago, "Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (God with us - Isaiah 7:14). If you don't think such a thing occurred, you’re looking with only human understanding. It truly happened because of the power and love of God.

Millennia before, He had stretched forth His Hand, and the interstellar vastness of outer space came into being, but now He was carried, for He could not walk even a step. Did He play with His toes? He who had breathed comfort into the hearts of Abraham, Moses and David - could He lift His blanket to ward off the cold?

The "crown" Jesus took, when He left the "flowers" of eternity, was a crown of thorns. There were not only thorns in the “crown” when He was on the cross, but also thorns in the words of those who spoke against Him, and in the many actions taken against Him.

Coming from eternity, He brought us the "flowers" of His love. Are you receiving His gift, right now? Do you love Him? Or, secretly, are you irritated because of something “unacceptable” in your life? Inside, you KNOW God is sovereign in all things. He could change your life in an instant. Why is it not changing? Have you ASKED Him? If not, you should. Have you asked Him and He did not answer? Perhaps HE wants something of YOU, and that is why the answer is delayed. Do you have pride, thinking that somehow YOUR solutions are better than HIS?

There is a cross for you, also, and it is the key to receiving the crown. Look prayerfully at what He did on the cross, and you will begin to see the flowers of His love. Reach out to Him who had become a Babe in a manger, the Man of sorrows on the Cross of Calvary who died for your sins.

In Isaiah 28:1, and forward, we read. “Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards… and to the fading flower of its glorious beauty…” Our works and efforts will fail, but “The Lord of hosts” Himself has “become a beautiful crown” (Isaiah 28:5) – for you.

Lord, thank You for becoming a human child, a Man, and our Savior, the Substitute who died for the sins of the world. Thank You for becoming our cross and our crown, making us acceptable in the sight of a Holy God. Our flowers are fading, but Yours are forever, and we are made new in You. Forgive us our sins. We praise Your Holy Name, and place our faith in You now. In Jesus Name. Amen.

Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries

Why is God Just to Punish Jesus for our Sins?

Why is God just to punish Jesus for our sins when doing a similar thing would be so unjust for a human judge to do?

Very good question.

When Jesus died, he said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son and glorify yourself." And the Father came back and said, "I have glorified it [my name], and I will glorify it again."

The way to understand Jesus' substitutionary death under God's wrath is that he is doing it in such a way as to glorify or magnify the infinite worth of the glory of God.

God's glory has been trampled by people like us. Every time we prefer something to the glory of God, we demean the glory of God. And we do it every day.

Since his glory has been impugned and belittled, he has to exalt his glory by punishing sinners and saying, "My glory is infinitely valuable. If you trample my glory, you lose glory. And I restore my glory by your losing glory."

Jesus enters in and he is able to do what no human could do. This is why there is a difference. No human ever could do this in a court of law. He is so perfect and he suffers so much, and his motives are so Godward, that when he dies on the cross, what is manifest is, "Look how valuable the glory of God is!"

If a mom stepped forward in a courtroom and said, "Let me take my son's place. Let me take my son's place, please." We all know that would be unjust. She goes to the electric chair, and this son goes on to sin more.

The two differences are

1. She's not doing that to magnify the worth of the state—God. She's doing it to magnify the worth of her son, and that's not what's happening at the cross.
2. She's freeing the son, untransformed, to go into the world and sin some more.

And those are the very two things that are different about the death of Jesus.

1. Jesus dies not to magnify the sinner's worth, but to magnify God's worth.
2. And he dies and changes those who escape from hell. He doesn't just release more sin upon the world. He puts the Holy Spirit in our lives and begins to transform us into the image of Christ so that we bring more glory to the Father than if we had been left in our sin.

desiringGod.org

Watering Down God's Wrath Dilutes God's Love.

In an effort to make the Gospel more seeker-friendly, some Christians avoid talking about God's wrath, anger, and hatred toward those who have sinned against him. By watering down the wrath of God such people cheapen and diminish the love of God.

Such a faith void of God's wrath was characterized in the early 1900s by a movement called Protestant Liberalism. In 1937, H. Richard Niebuhr, professor at Yale Divinity School, gave this description of Protestant Liberalism's theology: "A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through a Christ without a cross."

As Niebuhr pungently demonstrated, eliminating God's wrath minimizes the cross, which is the ultimate manifestation of God's love (see Romans 5:6-8).

Because God is holy, perfect, and sinless, he deserves all glory, honor, fame, praise, and exaltation. However, when we sin—and every one of us sins—we insult God's holiness. Sin is fundamentally an offense against God, and so he hates sin and punishes all who sin against him (see Psalm 78:19-21, John 3:36, Psalm 5:5, Isaiah 13:11, Psalm 7:11).

The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:18-19, describes the ubiquity of God's wrath: "The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them" (see also Romans 1:18-31).

So, if we all are godless and wicked, deserving of God's wrath, how can he accept us? Does God say, "Well, at least you're making progress"? Does he grade on the curve: "You're better than average, so I guess I'll give you a passing grade"? No. God can't forgive like that because his holiness and justice demand that perfect satisfaction for sin be made.

Instead, what God does is this: He sends his son, Jesus Christ, to bear all our sins so that our sin is paid for by Christ. What an amazing act that the very one who you hated, scorned, reviled, and scoffed at is the same one who took upon himself the death penalty you deserved, and because all your sins are placed on him God declares you righteous. That's good news!

[Weekly Wisdom - ChristNotes.org]

The Cross Alone

Sermonjam - Danish with English subtitles. Mikael Thomsen is a young man in Denmark who burns to preach the true Gospel. Listen as he delivers some thunder from the pulpit to a stunned congregation. Pray for him, as this is highly unusual preaching in this part of the world. His website is http://www.thecrossalone.com

Boasting Only in the Cross

A classic sermon by John Piper
From OneDay2000
Memphis, Tennessee
May 19, 2000

Boasting Only in the Cross

Preached in 2000 by John Piper. I've seen this a few times already and it always reminds me of the important things, or shall I say, the important thing, in life -- knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and making Him known in all the world.

An Angry God

BEEN THINKING ABOUT: A SURVEY

A 2006 Baylor Religion Survey found that Americans have very different opinions about whether God is inclined to be angry.

According to the Baylor study:

• 23 percent believe in a God of goodwill who shows up in our lives and is not inclined to be angry.

• 31.4 percent believe in an authoritarian God who is very involved in our lives and s us to do.

• 24.4 percent believe in a critical God who, although not so involved with us, will show His displeasure by punishment in the hereafter.

• 16 percent believe in a distant God who is neither involved with us nor inclined to be angry.

• 5.2 percent say they are atheists.

The results of this survey cause me to wonder how much the people in these categories have been affected by a misunderstanding of the Bible.

The Bible describes a God whose anger is an important part of His story. From Genesis to Revelation, God expresses not only love but also anger. Moses writes about a time when God was so angry with the children of Israel that He threatened to destroy all of them and start over (Deuteronomy 9:8-20). David, the songwriter king of Israel, later wrote that “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11), and the last book in the Bible pictures a resurrected Lord bringing the wrath of God against a world in rebellion (Revelation 19:11-16).

The God of both testaments, however, is slow to get angry. He is the opposite of irritable parents whose flash points of anger say more about their own frustration than about their child’s need for correction. The Father in heaven never loses His temper because He has had a bad day or because, in exasperation, He doesn’t know what else to do. Over and over the Bible describes Him as being “ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness” (Nehemiah 9:17; see also Psalm 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nahum 1:3).

The God of the Bible is so patient that He risks being misunderstood. His reluctance to enforce quick justice allows many to conclude that He isn’t watching, or that He doesn’t care (2 Peter 3:3-4). Yet by the time the last pages of the Bible are written, they reveal a God who waits as long as He does to give us time for a change of heart (Romans 2:4).

God takes no pleasure in the death of those who reject Him. Many centuries before Jesus’ birth, a Jewish prophet declared that God takes no pleasure in the death of His enemies. Specifically, the prophet Ezekiel declared, “‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’” (33:11).

Now, as then, God’s heart grieves over the end of those who refuse His offer of pardon and sanctuary.

When Jesus expressed “woes” on His enemies, He was more sad than angry. The “woes” He expressed to those who hated Him were not expressions of angry self-defense. They were expressions of lament, regret, and distress (Luke 11:42-52).

By “woes” of grief and alarm, Jesus put the Pharisees on notice that they were in danger of being accused and condemned by the very laws in which they took so much pride. So He said to them, “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust” (John 5:45).

God is too loving not to be angry. His anger, slow as it is, remains as evidence that He cares about the harmful things we do to ourselves and to one another.

The opposite of anger is not love. The opposite of anger is to be uninvolved and indifferent. It is because God loves so much that He feels such a mixture of grief and anger toward those who refuse to come to Him—at the expense of themselves and others.

This slow-forming, brokenhearted anger is what finally resulted in the terrible flood of Noah’s day (Genesis 6:1-6). Later, God’s judgment fell on Sodom and Gomorrah after the sins of the twin cities created conditions of oppression and hard-hearted violence (Genesis 18:20-21; Ezekiel 16:49-50). Still later, God’s reluctant anger fell on Jerusalem, who, according to the prophet Ezekiel, fell into such spiritual disgrace that she made Samaria and Sodom look good by comparison (16:51-52).

Nowhere, however, is the heart behind God’s anger better understood than when:

Jesus turned the wrath of the law against Himself. Because of the love that would not allow Him to be uninvolved or indifferent to us, the Son of God took the punishment we deserved (2 Corinthians 5:21). When Jesus said from His cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46), that was our hour of judgment. In that moment, our guilt was being punished. God’s anger against all that is evil and harmful in the world was falling on Himself instead of us.

Most amazing is that according to the New Testament, the One who will sit in judgment of the world in the last days is none other than the same Jesus who suffered in our place (Matthew 25:31-34; John 5:22-27; Acts 10:42-43; 17:31; 2 Timothy 4:1).

If this is true, if the anger of God will flash in the eyes of the same One who cried and died for us, then how would we answer a survey that asks how inclined God is to be angry?

Does this sound like a God who is uninvolved or uncaring—or in any way unworthy of our fear, trust, and love?

Father in heaven, thank You for helping us to see that if we are condemned, it is because of our refusal to be rescued. If we end up experiencing justice instead of mercy, it will be because we have rejected You, who so loved the world that You gave us Your only begotten Son, so that “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). — Mart De Haan

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