03 Wednesday Jun 2015
Posted in Atonement, Forgiveness, Harmatiology, Sin
Tags
Atonement, Father, forgiveness, God, love, R.C. Chapman, Sin
God regards our sins with the heart of a father, but not with the eye of a judge; for his sin-avenging justice has no further demands: the cross has made satisfaction.
R.C. Chapman
21 Thursday May 2015
Hebrews 1:1–4 (ESV)
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
27 Friday Feb 2015
Posted in Atonement, Christology, Isaac Watts
Tags
Hymn 108
Come, let us lift our joyful eyes
Up to the courts above,
And smile to see our Father there
Upon a throne of love.Once ’twas a seat of dreadful wrath,
And shot devouring flame
Our God appeared “consuming fire,”
And Vengeance was his name.Rich were the drops of Jesus’ blood
That calmed his frowning face,
That sprinkled o’er the burning throne,
And turned the wrath to grace.Now we may bow before his feet,
And venture near the Lord;
No fiery cherub guards his seat,
Nor double-flaming sword.The peaceful gates of heav’nly bliss
Are opened by the Son;
High let us raise our notes of praise,
And reach th’ almighty throne.To thee ten thousand thanks we bring,
Great Advocate on high;
And glory to th’ eternal King,
That lays his fury by.
Isaac Watts, The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts
14 Saturday Jun 2014
Posted in Atonement, Christology, Confession, Desire, Humility, Isaac Watts, Joy, Literature, Music
Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine
The glorious Suff’rer stood!
Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When God, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature’s sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’Tis all that I can do.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
-2 Corinthians 5:16-21
01 Tuesday Apr 2014
Tags
christology, cross, Of Comunion With the Father Son and Holy Spirit, Penalty, Puritan, Romans, Romans 6, Sin
The prior post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/of-communion-with-the-father-son-and-holy-spirit-digression-2a/
Owen’s second digression concerns three elements of wisdom:
The sum of all true wisdom and knowledge may be reduced to these three heads: —
1. The knowledge of God, his nature and his properties.
2. The knowledge of ourselves in reference to the will of God concerning us.
3. Skill to walk in communion with God: —
The knowledge of God being addressed in the previous post, we most to the knowledge of ourselves, which Owen breaks down into three elements which he takes form John 16:8: Our Savior sends his Spirit to convince the world of, — even “sin, righteousness, and judgement,” John 16:8.
Knowledge of Sin
Scripture affirms that all human beings have some sense of law (Romans 2:14-15, “15. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”). All cultures show some sense of divine sanction and law.
This understanding of sin may be improved by teaching of God’s law. Yet, however, much training one may receive, such training alone will never be sufficient to give sufficient understanding of sin.
In Christ we see two things plainly (1) the true nature of sin, and (2) salvation from the judgment due for sin.
How Christ Shows the True Nature of Sin:
First, Christ shows what sin deserves. We see this first in who was punished for sin. That the justice of God could be propitiated by nothing than the death of Christ demonstrates the extraordinary guilt and evil of sin. Christ’s death also demonstrates the sinfulness of sin in the punishment suffered by sin:
Would you, then, see the true demerit of sin? — take the measure of it from the mediation of Christ, especially his cross. It brought him who was the Son of God, equal unto God, God blessed for ever, into the form of a (Philippians 2:8) servant, who had not where to lay his head. It pursued him all his life with afflictions and persecutions; and lastly brought him under the rod of God; there bruised him and brake him, — (1 Corinthians 2:7) slew the Lord of life. Hence is deep humiliation for it, upon the account of him whom we (Zechariah 12:10.) have pierced. And this is the first spiritual view of sin we have in Christ.
Second, the atonement of Christ demonstrates our inability to save ourselves.
No sacrifice could suffice to make atonement:
Romans 3:24-26, by setting forth his only Son “to be a propitiation,” he leaves no doubt upon the spirits of men that in themselves they could make no atonement; for “if righteousness were by the law, then were Christ dead in vain.” To what purpose should he be made a propitiation, were not we ourselves weak and without strength to any such purpose? So the apostle argues, Romans 5:6, when we had no power, then did he by death make an atonement; as verses 8, 9.
An implication of Owen’s argument was raised in a recent essay on the Gospel Coalition website:
If Islam, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and all the other world religions are true paths to God, then why did God kill his Son, Jesus, in order to make a way for men to come to him? The very notion is absurd and insulting to God. It paints a portrait of a God who is just plain cruel. He sent Jesus into the world to live a miserable life of scorn, rejection, poverty, betrayal, humiliation, sorrow, and ultimately, torture and death, in order to create a path whereby men can come to know him. Yet all the while he knew that following the Five Pillars of Islam or the Noble Eight-fold Path could accomplish the same thing. What a waste! Jesus’ life—God’s plan of salvation— is completely in vain, for the same result could be achieved by simply adhering to the tenets of any world religion. God is not only cruel but also incompetent for putting into effect the worst salvation plan possible.
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2014/03/25/if-all-religions-are-true-then-god-is-cruel/
It also demonstrates our inability to render the obedience due God under the law:
Our disability to answer the mind and will of God, in all or any of the obedience that he requireth, is in him only to be discovered. This, indeed, is a thing that many will not be acquainted with to this day. To teach a man that he cannot do what he ought to do, and for which he condemns himself if he do it not, is no easy task.
Since teaching human beings their inability to render obedience sufficient to satisfy God is no easy thing, we must look to the cross to see this truth:
The law can bring forth no righteousness, no obedience; it is weak to any such purpose, by reason of the flesh, and that corruption that is come on us. These two things are done in Christ, and by him: — First, Sin is condemned as to its guilt, and we set free from that; the righteousness of the law by his obedience is fulfilled in us, who could never do it ourselves. And, secondly, That obedience which is required of us, his Spirit works it in us. So that that perfection of obedience which we have in him is imputed to us; and the sincerity that we have in obedience is from his Spirit bestowed on us. And this is the most excellent glass, wherein we see our impotency; for what need we his perfect obedience to be made ours, but that we have not, can not attain any? what need we his Spirit of life to quicken us, but that we are dead in trespasses and sins?
Third, Christ’s cross also demonstrates the death of sin. Owen notes that one can see the killing effects of sin without the need of seeing Christ’s death on the cross. But it is only by means of Christ’s cross that one can learn dying to sin:
Sin is a thing that of itself is not apt to die or to decay, but to get ground, and strength, and life, in the subject wherein it is, to eternity; prevent all its actual eruptions, yet its original enmity against God will still grow. In believers it is still dying and decaying, until it be utterly abolished. The opening of this treasury [mystery] you have, Romans 6:3-6, etc.
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”
This is the design of the apostle in the beginning of that chapter, not only to manifest whence is the principle and rise of our mortification and the death of sin, even from the death and blood of Christ; but also the manner of sin’s continuance and dying in us, from the manner of Christ’s dying for sin. He was crucified for us, and thereby sin was crucified in us; he died for us, and the body of sin is destroyed, that we should not serve sin; and as he was raised from the dead, that death should not have dominion over him, so also are we raised from sin, that it should not have dominion over us. This wisdom is hid in Christ only
Fourth, There is a glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained, and discovered in Christ. Sin itself tends only to the destruction of human beings, their condemnation, death and hell. Yet, in Christ, something new is seen. The law can only condemn. But in Christ, God manifests forgiveness and mercy:
In the Lord Jesus there is the manifestation of another and more glorious end; to wit, the praise of God’s glorious (Ephesians 1:6.) grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it; — God having taken order in Christ that that thing which tended merely to his dishonor should be managed to his infinite glory, and that which of all things he desireth to exalt, — even that he may be known and believed to be a (Hebrews 8:6-13.) “God pardoning iniquity, transgression and sin.”
Next we will look to the second aspect of knowledge of ourselves brought by the Spirit and mentioned in John 16:8:
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
06 Friday Dec 2013
Posted in Atonement, Edward Taylor, Meditation, Praise
Tags
2 Corinthians 5, Edward Taylor, Exodus 32, Hebrews 10, John 12, Meditation, penal substitutionary atonement, poem, Poetry, Praise, Puritan Poetry, Raptures of Love, Riddle of the Bible
The previous post in this series is found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/edward-taylor-raptures-of-love-2/
Yea, beauteous he in all his glory stands,
Tendering himself to God, and man where he
Doth Justice thus bespeake, hold out thy hands:
Come take my pensworth now for mine of me.
I’ll pay the fine that thou seest meet to set
Upon their heads: I’ll die to clear their debts.
Line 1:
The accent falls on the first syllable followed by another accented syllable “beaut-” which creates a rush over the third syllable “-e-” as one moves toward the “he”. By rushing the third syllable one scans the first half of the line ”-‘. One then ends with ten syllables for the line (the second half is perfectly regular -‘-‘-‘) but one too many accents. The introductory “Yea” (note the common use of the “yea” in the Psalms. See, e.g., Psalm 19:10: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”) draws attention to the line: Yes it is true see this! The accent as well as the comma pause slow the movement of the poem slightly, which then leads to the rush toward “he”.
Line 2:
“Tendering himself to God”. Again the line begins with an accent which leaves accents on Ten-, him-, God. The scene described, Christ offering himself as the penal substitution for human sin (the doctrine is known as “penal substitutionary atonement”) comes from several passages in the Bible.
Isaiah 53:10:
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
John 11:50:
Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”
2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1 Peter 2:21-25:
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Yet, the passage most likely in mind for Taylor is Hebrews 10:
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Line 3:
Christ is speaking to Justice, not Justice to Christ. The Justice of God is here personified.
It has been called (by Mark Dever, I believe) the riddle of the Bible. How can God both forgive and refuse to acquit sin?
5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 32:5-7.
The offering of Jesus in sacrifice fulfills the demands of justice and thus makes a way for God to forgive sin. Without the death of Christ, God’s forgiveness would be unjust or impossible.
Line 4: I can’t determine what is meant by “pensworth”. The word seems to mean a small amount in that a “pen” may refer to a “pin”. The other meaning for the word at time of Taylor would be “pen” as in a quill. However, small amount does not make sense in this instance. The death of Christ is of infinite value.
“for mine of me”: The offering of Christ is on behalf of “mine” that is those Christ will save; and “of me”, that is, from Christ.
Lines 5-6: Jesus willingly pays the entire penalty and owed for sin on behalf of those saved by Christ. The cost of sin is death:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 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.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11.
17 Sunday Nov 2013
The eager offerer puts his hand upon the victim’s head. Leviticus 1.4. [“He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”] Do any ask the meaning of this rite? It graphically shows a transfer….
Here is again the happy work of faith. It brings all guilt and heaps it on the Savior’s head. One sin retained is misery now and hell at last. All must be pardoned and brought to Chirst. And He is waiting to receive. His office is to be this burden bearer. His love constrains, and He cannot draw back.
Do any read this, who have never dealt thus with Christ? Sirs, where are your sins? They adhere tighter than your very skin. They have millstone either. They press to misery’s unfathomable depth. But flee to Jesus. He can remove them all, and He alone.
Believer, where are your sins? On Jesus they are placed, and you are free. I ask again, Where are your sins? You answer, “As far as the the east is from the weset, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Ps. 103:12. You may rejoice and sing aloud, Christ is accepted for me. I shall not be condemned. Thus, with one hand faith casts away all misery and with the other grasps all joy.
Christ is All, Leviticus, p. 3
Archdeacon Law
1861
09 Saturday Nov 2013
Posted in Atonement, Christology, James Denney, Repentance, Thomas F. Torrance
Tags
Atonement, christology, James Denney, Ontology, Repentance, The Atonement and the Modern Mind, Thomas F. Torrance
Denney and Torrance make the point too easily based over in the presentation of the Gospel: one cannot both receive the atonement of Christ and be the same person afterward. To receive the work of Christ’s atonement requires death and life (Galatians 2:20).
The Atonement is a reality of such a sort that it can make no compromise. The man who fights it knows that he is fighting for his life, and puts all his strength into the battle. To surrender is literally to give up himself, to cease to be the man he is, and to become another man. For the modern mind, therefore, as for the ancient, the attraction and the repulsion of Christianity are concentrated at the same point; the cross of Christ is man’s only glory, or it is his final stumbling-block.
James Denney, The Atonement and the Modern Mind, 3. Thus, we cannot even begin to know what we mean of the atonement unless and until we receive Christ’s work of atonement:
the truth that there is forgiveness with God, and that this forgiveness comes to us only through Christ, and signally or specifically through His death. Unless it becomes true to us that Christ died for our sins we cannot appreciate forgiveness at its specifically Christian value. It cannot be for us that kind of reality, it cannot have for us that kind of inspiration, which it unquestionably is and has in the New Testament (17).
Torrance likewise explains that the atonement interrupts everything of our lives. We cannot simply add forgiveness of sin to our existing life. Rather, to receive the forgiveness of sins means that we have become something new:
Here we must recall that in the death of Jesus Christ we have a deed of divine intervention which sets our life on a wholly new basis…This reversal means we cannot think our way into the death of Christ because the continuity of our way of thinking and striving has been interrupted by it, but we may think our way from it if we follow the new and living way opeened up to us in the crucifixion. Here is a deed of unearthly magnitude before which we can only bow in utter humility–far from being able to fit the death of Jesus into our life and our own preconceptions or notions we face the demand that we should be conformed to his death. We can understand the cross only by metanoia, repentance and change of mind, which is correlative on our part to the ‘wonderful exchange’ or mirifica commutatio on Christ’s part when he who was rich was made poor for our sakes that we might become rich ….
T.F. Torrance, Atonement, 3. A child cannot be both adopted into a new home part of another family. A groom cannot be married and yet a bachelor. To join the Marines will transform a life. To come ot know the atoning work of Christ necessarily transforms the human being. When I think of it like that, I begin to wonder: How rare a thing is this? It is not merely moral renovation; it is ontological, psychological, noetic, moral — it is to be someone else.
08 Friday Nov 2013
Posted in Apologetics, Atonement, James Denney
Tags
Apologetics, Atonement, Atonement and the Modern Mind, James Denney, Presuppositionalist Apologetics
James Denney in The Atonement and The Modern Mind, raises the issue of how does one present the doctrine of the atonement to men and women who cannot conceive of sin as a real category and who cannot see how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus can affect their life in this present time. His explanation for how to proceed is interesting, coming as it does before the apologetic split between evidentialists and presuppositionalists. From this passage he seems to be taking up both sides: Use evidence and argument to demonstrate the instability and irrationality of opponent’s presuppositions (philosophy). Such an argument does not bring anyone to a saving faith. However, it does create space in which to present the Gospel (in making this argument, he sounds a note very similar to Francis Schaeffer). If anything, he seems to be articulating a presuppositionalist apologetic before Van Till:
We have to take men as we find them; we have to preach the gospel to the mind which is around us; and if that mind is rooted in a view of the world which leaves no room for Christ and His work as Christian experience has realised them, then that view of the world must be appreciated by the evangelist, it must be undermined at its weak places, its inadequacy to interpret all that is present even in the mind which has accepted it—in other words, its inherent inconsistency—must be demonstrated; the attempt must be made to liberate the mind, so that it may be open to the impression of realities which under the conditions supposed it could only encounter with instinctive antipathy. (Page 20)
26 Saturday Oct 2013
Posted in 1 Peter, affliction, Atonement, Christology, Faith, Glory, Hope, John Piper, Joy, Praise, Preaching
Tags
1 Corinthians 15:56–58, 1 Peter 1:18–20, 1 Peter 1:23, 1 Peter 1:3–7, 1 Peter 2:12, 1 Peter 2:9, 1Peter 2:21, Acts 2:23, Affliction, And Can it Be, Atonement, Brothers We are not Professionals, Charles Wesley, Colossians 2:14, Ecclesiastes 2:11, Ecclesiastes 9:3, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 4:4–7, glory, Glory of God, Gospel, Hebrews 2:14, joy, Luke 22:61–62, Luke 24, Mark 15:16–20, Mark 15:33–34, Peter, Psalm 115:1, Romans 3:20, Solomon, Suffering
(draft notes for a sermon 1 Peter 2:21)
Because Christ Suffered for You. 1 Peter 2:21
Suffering hurts in two ways. First, there is the actual pain of suffering. Illness hurts; poverty hurts; broken relationships hurt. But the actual pain is perhaps not the worst part. I remember hearing an interview with a woman who was being tortured by the secret police in her country. She was tied to a table and the men where torturing her. She said she could take it as long as thought of them as monsters. But during the torture, one man took a phone call and spoke with his wife. He talked about finishing up at work and coming home. That real human beings were torturing her tore her soul.
The worst part of suffering is the shame, the pointlessness, the loneliness. When we come to die, there is regret. It doesn’t how much we acquire or how much we have done. Solomon coming to the end of his life, having done all that any man could do:
“And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure … “Ecclesiastes 2:10. And yet, that could not keep him from regret, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and striving after the wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
If drinking in all the money and power and sex and pleasure and wine which the world can give will leave one with regret, what of a normal life? When we suffer, we can think, What’s the point? What’s the point of my disease? When we can’t pay our bills, or a marriage fails; or our life just seems a waste, a getting up and paying bills for what?
We think, What’s the point of my suffering. Then, some well-meaning Christian tells us, “It’s to strengthen your faith!” Or, much worse, “God’s teaching you something.” It sounds as if the point of suffering is some sort quiz; as if there were some test and we need to get a 90% or higher to pass. Those answers are correct – but only in part. It’s like saying that Hamlet is important because it’s about ghosts, or the World Series is about hot dog sales.
Suffering does grow our faith – but faith is only the means to the end. In suffering we feel pain – and we are tempted to feel that our pain is pointless. We feel shame in our suffering and think that it serves no good. When we hear “It will strengthen our faith” – we think, I would settle for just not hurting today.
But what if suffering were an inlet for glory and joy – and not just joy in the future, but joy today? Look at 1 Peter 2:21. Peter writes:
For to this you have been called
Because Christ suffered for you
Leaving an example that you might follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2:21. Consider carefully those words and follow the logic: You have been called – that means that God has called you to patiently enduring suffering, even unjust, undeserved suffering. Peter then gives the reason: Because Christ suffered for you. Then, that you may not miss the point, Peter restates our duty and status in other words, that we might follow in Christ’s steps of suffering.
This does not sound hopeful. But, as you consider the matter, it becomes worse. We are not merely called to suffer, but we are called suffer as Christ suffered.
How does the logic work? You must suffer unjustly. If your boss abuses you, if your husband does not love you, if your wife will not respect you, you must so suffer. If someone pays you evil, you give them good. When someone curses you, you must bless them. Why? Because Christ has suffered for you.
Even more, such suffering will be measured by Christ’s suffering: His suffering is the pattern which you must follow; his suffering is like so many steps in the snow and you must follow behind, for it is the only way to cross.
Peter writes of Jesus being reviled and threatened. Those words do not merely mean a couple of crass shouts by an enemy:
16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. Mark 15:16–20 (ESV)
There he stood alone, beaten, shamed, blood running down his face as they struck him and danced about in their madness, mocking the Lord of glory who had come to rescue the children of Adam from sin and death.
Peter saw some, but not all of these things. You know the story of how Peter, frightened by a girl, denied the Lord. Luke records how that scene ended:
61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly. Luke 22:61–62 (ESV)
Peter’s own cowardice makes the command to suffer with Christ laughable – who is Peter to command me to follow the Lord, when Peter himself ran away and wept? How can this coward think to command our courage when he could not even stand still? How can Peter tell us to follow in the steps of Christ:
And they led him out to be crucified.
Peter’s words that we should follow in the steps of Christ, that we should follow Christ in suffering do not make sense. First, it does not make sense that we should suffer patiently through a bad marriage just because Jesus bore sin. Second, it makes no sense that Peter, of all people, should be the one who could draw such a conclusion. Peter looked at Jesus suffer. He saw that Jesus was going to the cross and Peter responded by lying to a little girl. If seeing Jesus suffer did not give Peter courage, how does Peter think reading about Jesus suffering will help me?
Let us consider the matter more carefully. What was the event? The Lord of glory, God incarnate, was murdered, “crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” Acts 2:23. Peter contends that murder must affect our life here and now.
For to this you were called
Because Christ suffered for you
Leaving you an example that you might follow in his steps.
To suffer because we have done wrong is no great trouble. Only the most morally twisted could conclude that wrong does not deserve a response: “For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure?” 1 Peter 2:20a.
But God does something strange. He commands a thing seemingly makes no sense:
“But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this a gracious thing in the sight of God” 1 Peter 2:20b.
Somehow a line runs between Christ’s suffering for our sins and our suffering even when we have not sinned.
Let’s consider the death of Jesus. If you were to stand on the street in Jerusalem on that Friday morning, you would have seen just another criminal, beaten, filthy, bloody, brutalized; a rough wooden beam upon his shoulders. You would have seen the tatters of meat which had been his back. You have seen him stumble and fall before the soldiers. Perhaps if you had known more, you have seen just another failed messiah; another dreamer and liar who had run into the teeth of Rome. You would have seen betrayal and shame and sorrow.
Even the dearest disciples and friends of Jesus had lost hope as he pushed along the streets to be murdered outside the gate. The women who found the empty tomb, had come to honor a corpse. Cleopas and the unnamed disciple were hopeless and saddened when they spoke to the Lord, not realizing he had risen from the dead:
Our chief priests and rulers had delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Luke 24:20-21a.
No one knew the “hidden wisdom of God” in all this. “For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” 1 Corinthians 2:7-8.
Now there was no secret in the death of Jesus – Rome killed in as a public a manner as they could find. What then was not seen:
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24 (ESV)
Thus, something must have happened in this death for our sin which transform everything we think we know about the world.
That is the great connection between Christ’s death and our suffering in this world. When Christ died for sins, the world changed.
We are born in a slaughterhouse. In a slaughterhouse, the cattle stand in long lines, head to tail, waiting their turn to walk through the door and die. The only hope for the cow is the hope of a feedlot and then the line outside the door of the slaughterhouse. This world is little more than a feedlot, than a prison. You are locked in by death. Death stands at the doors of this world and no one escapes.
Sin spreads through the camp and has infected us all, like a plague which eats the mind and poisons the soul:
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. Ecclesiastes 9:3 (ESV)
Look carefully into this world. The Law has come to town. In every street, the law sends out his soldiers to drag us each and every-one before his court. The young comes with the old; the baby is dragged from the mother; the rich stands with the poor. The tribunal stands in the middle of street; nothing is private. The bailiff reads out your crimes; nothing is hidden. Your boldest wrong and the darkest intention of your heart, so dim you scarcely knew it if was true all are read aloud. The Law knows all.
You fall condemned. No mercy; no defense; no hope. And thus you find yourself in this prison, this slaughterhouse, this feedlot for death. You are food for worms, and nothing more.
Sin and death reign supreme in this prison. All the insanity which spreads around flows from the utter terror of death at the door. As the Holy Spirit explains in Hebrews 2:14, the devil holds the world in life long slavery through fear of death.
Some people deny that death stands at the door. Others think they can bribe the guard when it comes the day to account. Others claim to have brought paradise to the prison and seek a torrent of pleasure to dull their eyes until they die.
No one within this prison deserves the least reprieve. The Law’s judgment was just and true. Nothing less than death awaits. And after death, vast fields of hopelessness and sorrow, despair and death without end. The bars of death cannot be beat. Like a blackhole whose gravity can swallow even light and time, death will not be beat. Justice will not lose one dram of vindication.
Yet, into this world the Son of God came. He takes up the charge laid against you. The Law reads out crimes, one by one, each more vicious and foul to have stained the air with their sound. The charge in full being stated, the Son of God, the King himself says to the Law, I will bear it all. Let death and hell come, I will bear it all.
And so the king, reviled, mocked, beaten, murdered upon a tree, bore the weight of sin and shame. Even more dreadful, the King received the wrath of God which caused the earth to shake and the sun to hide for shame:
33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:33–34 (ESV)
Somehow, upon that cross,
For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
Somehow
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— Galatians 3:13 (ESV)
A mystery lies here, that Christ could bear our sin in his body on the tree. And yet, it is true:
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:4–7 (ESV)
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
That is why Peter writes that God has brought us to hope:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3–7 (ESV)
Look into this hope – as deep as the sorrow of sin once laid upon us, so much greater is the joy and glory of hope now brought by resurrection of Jesus Christ. See further that all this hope is of God, and God alone.
It was God who sent the Law to condemn us each and everyone:
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20 (ESV)
It was God himself who wrote the “record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Colossians 2:14). It was God who kept close track of our sin, of our deeds and intentions. And it was God who sent the Son into the world. Do you not know
that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you …. 1 Peter 1:18–20 (ESV)
And in that ransom, death itself was aside forever. In his death and resurrection, “you were born again, not of perishable seed but imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). The one who lives without Christ cannot be said rightly to live at all. Before him lies only death; his life a life of a feedlot for worms. And after death? Death for eternity, endless fields of sorrow and despair.
But it is not so for you who know him. You have been called to joy which words cannot contain, because you have come to hope in the revelation of Jesus Christ:
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8–9 (ESV)
But this still may not answer the question we asked at the beginning: How does Christ dying me lead to me suffering in this world? Wouldn’t it be the case that I should come into immediate and full possession of all this joy?
That is where we stumble. You see, we falsely think that there is a joy to be had which is other than the joy of the visible presence of the King. When we joke about mansions in heaven, we laugh at the idolatry of our hearts that even when we think of the King we somehow think of a joy which should centered upon us.
But all so hope is false. We were created for something far greater than ourselves – we were created for God. Nothing less than our king will do for such a heart. No mere trifle, even the most glorious throne to ever arise over the face of the world will be enough. The greatest room in a prison is still a cell.
To dream that we should be happy with something here and now is dastardly – it is lie. The only happiness and contentment we have now is a draught of the Creator being bestowed through the creature. Imagine being thirsty and coming to a faucet. You turn the handle and water comes out. It is not the faucet which drowns your thirst but the water. When you have contentment which flows through the creature it is only gift of the Creator seen in the creature. We must not love anything or anyone for themselves, but rather for the sake of Christ. Even our dearest relations must be loved for Christ’s sake.
Only our foolishness ever permits us to seek contentment in the creature.
When Christ died for us, our entire world changed. Rather than being desperate to find some happiness in this world – which is like trying to find water in the Sarah – we were granted true hope. I can remember the day that one of my daughters first ate chocolate. After that taste, nothing else would be the same. How much more is such a thing true when we come to Christ!
We now know a thirst that can only be slaked by living water.
Our hope is God. Our good is God. Our joy is God. Our inheritance is God.
Thus, our greatest joy and hope is that our King be glorified.
You see, when Christ died and carried away our sin we were brought to a greater a hope and joy: the all sufficient most glorious God. We have come to see that our God possesses such power and beauty that it would be a crime for God to not glory in himself. When the Father looks upon the work of his Son, destroying the reign of sin and death, the Father delights in the Son. And it is the joy of the Father to glorify his Son. It is the joy of the Son to bring glory to his Father. It is the joy of the Spirit to convict us sin that we may come to see the glory of the Father in the Son.
When we were rescued from sin, we were rescued into this kingdom of joy. “Not to us, O LORD, not us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and faithfulness!” Psalm 115:1.
That is where our suffering comes in.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
You were saved so that you too could join in the eternal delight of God by proclaiming the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. You and I are not the point of the universe. You can understand nothing of true importance in this life, if you do not understand this. You will never understand, faith, obedience, suffering; you will never know blessedness, nor know joy, worship or hope until you grasp this point: “God loves His glory more than He loves us and that this is the foundation of His love for us” (Piper, Brothers, We are not Professionals, 7).
The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And that is the chief end of God. You exist to share in the eternal delight of glorifying God. Look down at 1 Peter 2:12:
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)
You proclaim the excellencies of God by keeping your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. And how do you do that? By patiently enduring suffering – even unjust suffering. To endure unjust suffering because you have hope of God’s rescue testifies of God’s goodness and glory. Now, perhaps, the others may think you a fool and may think your suffering shame – but the day will come when you will be revealed to be a child of God and a joint heir with Christ. The time will come that Christ will come and then they will see your good deeds where done in the hope of God. Therefore, you may rejoice today knowing that you are bringing glory to God. Indeed, bringing glory to God is the only true means of joy in all of creation. Where you to search all heaven, all earth; where you to travel to edge of the universe, you could find no other true joy, no greater joy than the joy of glorifying God.
When the Lord had been arrested, Peter did not understand what was happening. It was only later that he finally realized the glory of God. Too often, we live like Peter before the resurrection. We deny Jesus, because the shame and pain of this world become too great. We know it to be wrong, and so we run out and weep. Peter is writing to you and me to spare us the sorrow of hearing the cock crow.
Thus, now that Christ has risen and death has been defeated, we can look upon our sorrows and pangs, sad marriages or painful work, as moments to glorify God – and what could be a greater joy? Christ’s death did not merely transform death for us, it also transformed life:
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:56–58 (ESV)
