Look upon Him you have pierced. Say to thy soul, “What have I done? What love, what mercy, what blood, what grace have I despised and trampled on! Is this the return I make to the Father for his love, to the Son for his blood, to the Holy Spirit for his grace? Do I thus repay the Lord? Have I defiled the heart that Christ died to wash, that the lovely Spirit of God has chosen to dwell in? And what can I say to the dear Lord Jesus? How can I hold my head up before him? Do I account my intimacy with him of so little value, that for the sake of this sin I have scarce left him any room in my heart? How shall I escape if I neglect so great a salvation? Have I, through infinite cost to Christ, now obtained access to the countenance and presence of the Father that I might now provoke him to his very face? Was my soul washed and straightened up by God to make room for new defilements? Shall I now work to endeavor to frustrate the very end goal of all the mighty sufferings and torments an death of Jesus Christ? Shall I daily cause grief in the heart of that Spirit within me whereby I am sealed until the day of redemption?” Friends, entertain thy heart daily with such treaties. See if it can stand hard before this aggravation. If this makes it not melt in some measure, I fear the case is dangerous.
—John Owen
On the Mortification of Sin in Believers
Via: New City Church
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This is the audio verison of the message entitled “A Crucifixion Narrative” delivered by Rick Gamache on April 6, 2007.
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Jesus pushes himself up again and cries, “It is finished.” And it is. Every sin of every child of God had been laid on Jesus and he drank the cup of God’s wrath dry.
It’s six o’clock, Friday evening, and Jesus finds one more surge of strength. He presses his torn feet against the spikes, straightens his legs, and with one last gasp of air cries out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”
And he dies.
The merciful centurion sees Jesus’ body fall far forward and his head drop low. He thrusts a spear up behind Jesus’ ribs—one more piercing for our transgression—and water and blood flow out of his broken heart.
In that moment mountains shake and rocks spilt; veils tear and tombs open.
The merciful centurion looks
up at that lifeless body of Jesus and is filled with awe. He drops to his knees and declares, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”
Mission accomplished. Sacrifice accepted.
—Rick Gamache
A Crucifixion Narrative
Related: Please read this post in it’s entirety at the New Attitude website.
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What happened on Wednesday of Jesus’ final week before the cross? According to Matthew 26:2, "after two days the Passover is coming.” That probably means it’s Wednesday. We can’t be sure because fragments of days count as days, and because when Passover starts is reckoned in different ways. But it’s close.
The next verse says, “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.” What did they say behind those closed doors?
We get a glimpse of what they may have said from an earlier conversation in John 11:47-53. It is astonishing.
So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the Council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 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.” 51 He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53 So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
Note:
1) God preaches the Gospel to the council through the mouth of Caiaphas. Jesus will die so that the nation might live—that is, so that all Jews who believe might live (John 3:36).
2) John adds that the atoning power of Jesus’ death will gather the “children of God” who are scattered among all the nations—”I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also” (John 10:16).
3) This strategy to hold back the Romans did not work. In fact, it totally backfired. Jesus said on the way to the cross, “If they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:31). That is, if the fires of violence in Jerusalem consume even the most righteous branch, what will happen when the sins of the nation are complete? Answer: The desolation of A.D. 70.
4) Marvel that God chose you to hear the story of the cross and believe—that you proved to be among “the children of God” scattered abroad. Give thanks that Jesus prayed, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me” (John 17:6). There is no happier gift than to be given to Jesus by the Father.
Via: Desiring God Blog
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The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his
suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his
life for us” (1 John 3:16). If he was intentional in laying down his
life, it was for us. It was love. “When Jesus knew that his hour had
come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own
who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Every
step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”
Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his
life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was. Consider these
five ways of seeing Christ’s intentionality in dying for us…
Read the whole article.
Via: Desiring God Blog
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Judas left the fellowship of the twelve apostles after the anointing in Bethany and arranged to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-15). But when they met again at the last supper, there he was! Near enough to dip in the Savior’s cup.
When our family read this for devotions last night I was angry at the absolute wickedness of Judas coming back to eat Passover with the one he had just sold. I said to my daughter, evidently with more emotion than she was used to, “That is utterly wicked!”
She said, “What is so wicked?” I said: “What if I went out tonight and arranged for a cruel man to kill you on the way to school tomorrow morning? That would be horrible. But then would it not be wicked to high heaven if I came home, after arranging for your murder, and had devotions with you and prayed with you?”
She was shaken.
Small wonder that Jesus said, “It would have been better for that man if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24).
Let us be shaken this week, again and again.
Via: Desiring God Blog
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Faith is not our saviour. It was not faith that was born at Bethlehem and died on Golgotha for us. It was not faith that loved us, and gave itself for us; that bore our sins in its own body on the tree; that died and rose again for our sins. Faith is one thing, the Saviour is another. Faith is one thing, and the cross is another. Let us not confound them, nor ascribe to a poor, imperfect act of man, that which belongs exclusively to the Son of the Living God.
Our security is this, that it matters not how poor or weak our faith maybe: if it touches the perfect One, all is well. God has asked and provided a perfect righteousness; He nowhere asks nor expects a perfect faith. So a feeble, very feeble faith, will connect us with the righteousness of the Son of God; the faith, perhaps, that can only cry, ‘Lord, I believe; help mine unbelief.’
—Horatius Bonar
Not Faith, But Christ
Via: Of First Importance
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There are three possibilities with the Great Commission. You can go. You can send. Or you can be disobedient. Ignoring the cause is not a Christian option. If we love God’s fame and are committed to magnifying his name above all things, we cannot be indifferent to world missions. Over and over we read this in the Bible — that God does what he does so “that [his] name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Romans 9:17) The central command of missions is Isaiah 12:4, “Make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.”
—John Piper
Brothers, We Are Not Professionals: A Plea to Pastors for Radical Minstry
Related: Passage for March from the 2008 Desiring God Calendar.
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And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
—2 Corinthians 4:3-6, ESV
Related: Referenced by John Piper in the message “Why I Trust the Scriptures.”
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John Piper’s third and final message at the 2008 Resurgence Conference was entitled “How I Distinguish Between the Gospel and False Gospels.”
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