Five Truths About the Resurrection of Jesus

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ResourcesOtherClose menuTweetFive Truths About the Resurrection of JesusFebruary 26, 2014 by Joseph ScheumannTopics: The Resurrection of Christ

The resurrection of Jesus is foundational to the Christian faith, and yet, oftentimes, we only give it real thought around the Easter season.

But the resurrection of Jesus is so important that Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). And later he says, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (verse 19).

In the hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of this glorious reality, here are five truths about the resurrection.

1) Jesus had a bodily resurrection.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, he didn’t leave his body behind. In fact, after his resurrection his scars remained (John 20:27), he ate fish (John 20:12), he bodily ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9), and will bodily come again (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The Son of God will always have a bodily existence.

The fact that Jesus still has a body testifies to the dignity of the human body — both the ones that we have and the ones we will have after our resurrection. Matthew Lee Anderson writes, “The resurrection of the body means that to be human with God is to be with him not as disembodied souls, but as people with noses, faces, arms, and legs that are similar to those we currently have” (Earthen Vessels, 60–61).

2) Jesus had a justifying resurrection.

Perhaps the clearest instance of Paul connecting Jesus’s resurrection with his justification is obscured in most English translations. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:16, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” The word that is translated “vindicated” is typically translated “declared righteous” or “justified” elsewhere in the New Testament.

But if Jesus was perfect, how could he be justified, since justification implies guilt (see Romans 4:5)? The answer lies in Jesus’s death and resurrection. Richard Gaffin explains, “As long as [Jesus] remained in a state of death, the righteous character of his work, the efficacy of his obedience unto death remained in question, in fact, was implicitly denied. Consequently, the eradication of death in his resurrection is nothing less than the removal of the verdict of condemnation and the effective affirmation of his righteousness” (Resurrection and Redemption, 121–122).

3) Jesus had a Trinitarian resurrection.

The pattern in the New Testament is to speak of God the Father as the one who does the raising, Jesus as the one who is being raised, and the Spirit as the means the Father used to raise Jesus. This pattern is seen in Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Here we see not only that God the Father raises Jesus through the Holy Spirit, but our resurrection will be parallel to the resurrection of Jesus — God the Father will raise us through the Spirit.

4) Jesus had a firstfruits resurrection of ours to come.

Paul describes Jesus’s resurrection as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Firstfruits is an agricultural metaphor that points to the initial quality of the harvest. Gaffin explains, “Paul is saying here, the resurrection of Christ and of believers cannot be separated. Why? Because, to extend the metaphor as Paul surely intends, Christ’s resurrection is the ‘firstfruits’ of the resurrection ‘harvest’ that includes the resurrection of believers. This thought is reinforced in verse 23: ‘Each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ’” (By Faith, Not By Sight, 68).

5) In Jesus, believers are already spiritually resurrected.

The resurrection is not only a future event for believers. Those who believe in Christ have already been raised to life with him. Paul writes, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1).Christians are people who have already been raised with Christ. Gaffin explains, “[B]elievers will never be more resurrected than they already are. God has done a work in each believer, a work of nothing less than resurrection proportions, that will not be undone” (By Faith, Not by Sight, 76).

The resurrection is an already but not-yet reality for the Christian because of our union with Christ. Jesus’s resurrection means that those who have faith in him have been raised from the dead because they are in Christ, and yet we still await the full experience of the resurrection to come (Romans 8:22–23).

Recent posts from Jospeh Scheumann:

Five Truths About the Incarnation

Five Encouragements for Everyday Work

Five Truths About Christian Suffering

Joseph Scheumann (@JosephScheumann) is a project manager for donor partnerships at Desiring God. He is pursuing a Master of Divinity at Bethlehem College and Seminary. He and his wife, Martha, live in Minneapolis.

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Jesus As the True and Perfect Man

Jesus As the True and Perfect Man| Desiring GodBlogSermonsBooksMoreBrowse ByScriptureTopicLanguageResourcesConference MessagesArticlesBiographiesSeminarsInterviewsPoemsOtherEventsAboutDonateSearchMenuOr browse by Scripture, Topic or Language.Or browse by Scripture, Topic or Language.ResourcesOtherTweetJesus As the True and Perfect ManJanuary 8, 2014 by Darrin PatrickTopics: Manhood and Womanhood
Men are experiencing an identity crisis. And we’re short on role models.
We’re caught between Don Draper as the alpha male and a whole crew of omega males like Judd Apatow. One tries to express masculinity through power, possessions, and promiscuity. The other group has stopped trying altogether. Unlike us, these other guys seem to be getting something out of their isolation and discontentment, their rebellion, and their lack of discipline. We’re stuck with pain and hardship.
We need a more compelling vision for masculinity. We need to see a man so utterly rooted and secure in his identity that he can actually embody masculinity for us. A man with no crisis of identity, pursuing his calling with passion and persistence. A man whose masculinity is not vain and self-serving.
We need to look to Jesus, the true and perfect Man.
Content and Coachable
Contentment propelled Jesus. Before his incarnation, he had all that anyone could possibly imagine. Yet he relinquished everything for our sake, entering into a world of hardship, limitation, suffering, and death. His contentment didn’t come from his circumstances or location, but from his ongoing, eternal relationship with the Father. Before Jesus entered into public ministry, preached a single sermon, performed any miracles, or healed anyone, the Father spoke these words: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
Because Jesus was content and secure in his identity as the Son of the Father, he was coachable
. He was the perfect teacher, but the Gospel of Luke describes him being led by the Holy Spirit. He said that he did on earth whatever his Father did (John 5:19), even learning through his ordained suffering (Hebrews 5:8). He modeled humility, making it clear he was under the guidance and authority of God the Father. Even when he was tempted to avoid the suffering of the cross, Jesus said, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).Disciplined and Determined
He was disciplined
. Knowing that once the sun came up he would be mobbed by the crowds, he made it his practice to get up early to be with his Father and gain instruction for the day. He had focus and a clear sense of timing. He moved on to the next thing when needed (Mark 1:37–38). He lived in the moment: “And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I have come to this hour” (John 12:27).
He dealt with the weaknesses of living as a man in sin-soaked society (Hebrews 4:15). People opposed his mission and message at every turn. Yet despite every obstacle, Jesus remained focused on our good and his perfect sacrifice on our behalf (Hebrews 10:14). Jesus was a determined
man.Connected to Family and Friends
Jesus was driven, but always had others in view, even making room for his family
(John 2:3–5). He was aware of his responsibilities as a son, knowing that, even as God, he needed to fulfill them. Before entering public ministry, he took up carpentry like his earthly father Joseph. And in his final act, while he was on the cross, Jesus entrusted the care for his mother to a beloved disciple (John 19:26–27).
Jesus was connected
to his followers, revealing himself to them. He coached and trained them, encouraged and challenged them. He was a teacher to them, but much more. Their job was to soak up as much as they could, to imitate him, and obey his commands. But in a remarkable statement, Jesus made them more than followers. He invited them to be friends, to be equals with him in his work, in his rest, in all the benefits and joys that are his — even as the Son of God (John 15:15).Tough and Tender
Jesus was both tender and tough. He grieved and wept over the death of his friend Lazarus. And when the religious leaders of his day were selling things in the temple, Jesus overturned their tables and angrily whipped them with cords (Matthew 21:21)! He wasn’t ruled by his emotions
, but did not deny or suppress them either. Jesus felt things both deeply and rightly.
Jesus fought
the right battles. He stared death in the face and overcame it. He conquered his enemies and ours. And he continues to vanquish anything else that would dare oppose him (1 Corinthians 15:20–28). He is ever victorious, always triumphant, and glorious in his strength. And he fights on our behalf, coming to our aid and triumphing over the one who would destroy our souls.Uncover the Manhood
As we look to Jesus, we see much more than an example. He is the one who enables us to become like him because he frees us from the guilt we feel when we see how short of his perfection we have fallen. He is not only the true man. He is the only true Savior.
We were created to be true men — men of courage, industry, and goodness. That glory has been buried because of our ongoing rebellion against our Creator. Jesus offers us forgiveness and a chance to be made new. If we open ourselves to his mercy at the cross, we can begin the painful, but healing, process of letting Jesus dig through our bitterness, anger, pride, envy, and desire to control others — to uncover the true and glorious manhood that lies somewhere deep within every one of us men.
Darrin Patrick is pastor of The Journey Church in St. Louis, Missouri, and author of the new book The Dude’s Guide to Manhood: Finding True Manliness in a World Full of Counterfeits.

The Silence of Jesus in Judgment

As a young Christian, there was a period of time when I would read the records of Christ’s sufferings in the Gospels and wonder, “Why do the Gospel writers note that Jesus ‘answered nothing’ (Matt. 27:12), ‘answered not one word (27:13)’ and ‘kept silent and answered nothing’ (Mark 14:61) when He stood before earthly judges?” After all, Jesus was sinless and absolutely blameless. Of all men, He alone had the right to open His mouth and vindicate Himself. Clearly it was in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the suffering Servant, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). In this way, I understood that it happened to build us up in faith in the long-awaited, suffering Servant Redeemer. But, it seemed to me that there had to be some other reason. Not long after I began wrestling with this question, I stumbled across the most wonderful explanation in John Calvin’s Sermons on the Passion of our Lord. Calvin wrote:

Now to end it and come to the conclusion, it is said, “Our Lord Jesus having been led before Pilate answered nothing. Pilate asked him, saying, ‘Do you not speak at all? Do you not see the witnesses they have brought here against you?’ And he held his peace, so that the judge marveled greatly.” In the first place we have to keep in memory, when our Lord Jesus Christ is judged before, an earthly judge, that it was in order that we might be exempt and absolved from the condemnation which we deserved before the heavenly Judge. We know that we cannot escape what is written by the Prophet Isaiah, that every knee must bow before God. (Isaiah 45:23.) Since God is the Judge of the world, how can we subsist before His face and before His majesty? There is not one of us who is not constrained to condemn himself a hundred thousand times. When we have lived only a year in the world, there are already a hundred thousand faults, by which we deserve to be condemned. There is no one who has not this testimony engraved upon his heart, and who is not convinced of it. Now God, Who sees much more clearly than we, how will He not condemn us when each one is constrained to condemn himself, indeed, in so many ways? But here our Lord Jesus is subjected to this extremity of being accused before an earthly judge, even before a profane man, before a man who was pushed only by his greed and his ambition. When, then, the Son of God is humiliated to that extent, let us know that it is in order that we may be able to come with heads raised before God, and that He may receive us, and that fear may no longer cause us to draw back from His judgment-seat, but that we may dare to approach it boldly, knowing that we shall be received there in mercy. We even know that Jesus Christ acquired authority and power and sovereign dominion to be Judge of the world. And when He is thus condemned by Pilate, it is in order that today we may come boldly to Him, indeed, knowing that power is given to Him to judge us. Since He stood there, may we know that He wished to bear our condemnation and that He did not intend a trial to justify Himself, also knowing well that He had to be condemned, indeed, in our person. For although He was without spot or blemish, He bore all our sins upon Himself. We need not be astonished, then, that He stood there as if He had been convicted. For otherwise He could not have performed the office of Mediator except by accepting sentence and confessing that in our persons He had deserved to be condemned. That, then, is what the silence of our Lord Jesus Christ implies, in order that today we can call upon God with full voice, and that we can ask Him for pardon for all vices and offenses.1

Again, Calvin explained:

Our Lord Jesus so offered Himself of His own will as a sacrifice to make reparation for all our iniquities by His obedience and He was willing to be condemned to wipe them out. That is why it is said that He did not answer at all the accusations that were raised against Him. He had enough wherewith to answer, but He was silent, as is also mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah. That was not only to show his patience, but in  order to acquire for us liberty to be able today to glory in being righteous and innocent before God (indeed, notwithstanding that our conscience accuses us and condemns us), knowing that God has received us in mercy, and that all our faults are abolished by the perfection which was found in our Lord Jesus Christ. That, then, is how the Son of God acquired for us the liberty to be able to glory boldly that we are the children of God and reputed righteous before Him, that is, when He willed to offer no reply to show His integrity. Besides, one might at first find it strange that He is thus captured and nevertheless responds that He is King of the Jews. For these things seem contradictory; but Saint John proceeds still further, and says that He declared that His Kingdom was not of this world, and then He declared also that He was Son of God, indeed, He protested that He had come into the world to maintain the truth. But all this agrees easily. For our Lord Jesus surely had to declare Himself to be King of the Jews, unless He wished to reject the Prophecies. Also He had to be declared Son of God. But that did not lead to His absolution. It was rather that there might not be a long drawn-out trial, but that He might be condemned. Let us note well, then, when the silence of Jesus Christ is spoken of, that it was inasmuch as He did not wish to offer any excuse. As for His person, He kept His mouth closed. However, He did not cease to make such confession as He had to make. That is also why Saint Paul says that He made a good confession before Pontius Pilate (1 Timothy 6:13). For if it had been a matter of Jesus Christ’s entering into His own self-defense, already the judge was persuaded of His integrity. He could, then, easily have won His case by speaking. That is what amazes Pilate. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ did not cease to render such testimony as God had committed to Him—not tending to instruct (for this was not the place) but to confirm and ratify the doctrine to which He had previously borne witness.2

Recently, I came across one of the most profound textual connections between Romans 3:19 and the Gospel writers’ witness to the silence of Jesus. In his sermon on Romans 3:1-20, Sinclair Ferguson drew together the sad reality of our innate desire to open our mouths with self-justifying arguments before God and the silence of Jesus in the day when he was judged. He explained:

[Paul] says…this is our chief problem. We will keep on talking. We will keep on justifying ourselves. We will keep on using arguments. We will keep on pleading our own sufficiency and our own superiority–and Paul, as it were, lifts us up before the judgment throne of God at the last assize and says, “Stand there a moment my friend…and listen to the silence, listen to the silence, listen to the silence.” Because when a man or woman stands before the judgment throne of God and sees His infinite holiness and has unraveled in the their lives the seemingly infinite sinfulness, for the very first time in their lives they hear total silence, not only outside but inside. Because on that day says Paul, Every mouth will be shut and the whole world held guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty before God.

And you see why he does this. I’m sure that it was as painful to him as it is to us when he expounds his teaching. Because he wants to bring us to silence before God’s judgment now, in order that before God’s judgment then we may be able to open our mouths and say the one word in all the universe that is acceptable in His sight and makes us acceptable in His sight. And this is the glory of the Gospel that he will go on to expound—that as we stand silent before the judgment seat of God because we have nothing in ourselves to plead before Him, the only One in all the history of human creation who had the right to speak in the presence of God’s judgment and call Him ‘Father’ came into the world to take our place, to bear our sin—silently. “Like a Lamb that was brought to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,” Isaiah said of Him, “so as He went to judgment He opened not His mouth.” And as in His need upon the cross He hung feeling the weight of God’s judgment on the sins of those for whom He died, He opened His mouth to say the only thing that sinners can say, in and of themselves, in that judgment throne, “My God, You have forsaken Me.” And under the solemn judgment of God in the darkness of the    Jerusalem afternoon as He hung there between heaven and earth, as a kind of no-man’s land of desolation, He died in silence, bearing our sins that we might go in triumph and speak His name.

The Apostle, you see, is, in a sense, saying to us—as he expounds the Gospel—the thing that marks the Christian believer out from everyone else is that the Christian is someone whose mouth has been shut already in this world, and into it God has given a name of grace to speak and to say, “Jesus, save me from the wrath of God.”3

1. An excerpt taken from John Calvin’s “Fourth Sermon—Matthew 26:67-27:10? in Sermons on the Passion of our Lord 

2. An excerpt from Calvin’s “Fifth Sermon –Matthew 27:11-26? in Sermons on the Passion of our Lord

3. An excerpt taken from Sinclair Ferguson’s sermon on Romans 3:1-20.

What Will You Say to Jesus?

One day we will stand before Jesus.

If we could see through the clutter of our lives now, if we could envision that day when everything is said and done, it’s clear that the enduring mission in and under and beyond every detail of our lives should be about pleasing him. What does he think?

What will he say?

We don’t know the exact words Jesus will speak to us on that Day, though the Bible gives us some ideas (Matthew 25:23). Whatever it is, we can be sure it will be glorious and full of grace. We will hear his voice. It will be amazing.

But what if we turned the question around? Instead of just wondering what Jesus might say to us, what will we say to Jesus? Imagine with me for a moment that you are there with him and he asks you how you made it to heaven.

“How were you saved?” he asks.

Easy, you think. “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in you, Jesus, and so I believed in you in order to be justified by faith” (Galatians 2:16).

“Yes,” he says.

But then imagine he asks a follow-up question. He wants to press deeper. He wants you to see more of his glory. Imagine, as John Piper ponders in chapter four of Five Points: Toward a Deeper Experience of God’s Grace, that Jesus asks you, “Why did you believe on me, when you heard the gospel, but your friends didn’t, when they heard?”

You know that is the case. We all have friends, family, people we know, who have heard the gospel but do not believe. And some, sadly, will refuse Jesus all their lives. And there you are, on that Day, and Jesus is asking you why, why you were one of the ones who believed.

“Why did you trust me but these others didn’t?”

You hear his words. You bow your head. And you do not say it’s because you’re smarter. You don’t begin to explain your faith as the result of your wisdom. “Well, Lord, you see, I was just more spiritual than they were.” “I read more books than they did.” “I always had a way of making good decisions.”

No. You won’t say that.

In that moment — picture it — in that moment you and I and every blood-bought saint will put our hands over our mouths, pointing to him, not us. Grace will stand forth with more vividness than we could have ever dreamed. There will be new dimensions of colors then — depths and wonders that we can’t see through the dim mirror of now.

And then, in that glorious moment, we will say, “You, Jesus. It was all you. We believed in your name, only by your sovereign grace. Jesus, it was all you.”

Does Jesus Have One Nature, or Two?

In the year 451, the church convened the great Council of Chalcedon, one of the most important ecumenical councils of all time. It was called to combat several heresies, the most significant of which was the Monophysite heresy. The term monophysite has a prefix and a root. The prefix, mono, means “one,” and the root, phusis, is translated as “nature.” So monophusis or monophysite simply means “one nature.”

The Monophysites claimed that Jesus did not have two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, but only one nature. That one nature was neither completely divine nor completely human. It was, depending on how one looked at it, a deified human nature or a humanized divine nature. This heresy was very serious for two reasons. It denied, on the one hand, the full deity of Christ. On the other hand, it denied the real humanity of Jesus. Against that, the Council of Chalcedon declared that Christ was vere homo, vere Deus, that is, “truly man and truly God,” having two natures in one person.

Christ was vere homo, vere Deus, that is, “truly man and truly God,” having two natures in one person

How are we to understand the union of a human nature and a divine nature? The Bible says that in the incarnation, the second person of the Trinity took on Himself a human nature. However, when He took flesh, a human nature, He did not deify that human nature. That human nature remained human.

The Council of Chalcedon, in dealing with the mystery of the incarnation and affirming Jesus’ two natures, said that His two natures are perfectly united in such a way that they are not confused or mixed, divided or separated. We cannot mix them together as the Monophysites did, deifying the flesh or humanizing the spirit. At the same time, we must never separate them. They are always and everywhere united. Those four negatives of Chalcedon are further qualified by this phrase, “each nature retaining its own attributes.” That is, in the incarnation, the Son did not surrender any of His attributes. The divine nature is still eternal, infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. It manifests all the attributes that belong to deity. God did not stop being God when He took on a human nature in Jesus. At the same time, the human nature retained its own attributes, being finite, contained, unable to be at more than one place at the same time, limited in knowledge, and limited in power. All of those attributes of humanity remained attributes of Jesus’ humanity.

If Jesus Had Not Come

Jesus was, is, and always will be in a league of his own.

Many are happy to honor him as a good teacher and social reformer, and some religions even admit that he was a great prophet of God. But none of them go far enough.

Jesus was not just another prophet like those who had come before him. Nor was he merely a great moralist and motivator. He was, and is, qualitatively different.

Jesus is, as the Father himself testified at his baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration, God’s beloved Son (Mark 1:11; 9:7). And as God’s Son, “he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3). You cannot get any greater than this.

So Jesus surpasses every other messenger God has sent, or ever could send, because by his very nature, he far exceeds all other contenders.

Not only is Jesus the greatest messenger. The message he brings is also the greatest, trumping every message that has ever, or could ever be, proclaimed.

Certainly Jesus’s ministry was not disconnected from, or contrary to, what God had spoken through his earlier prophets. They were, after all, speaking God’s words. But Jesus is himself the very Word of God incarnate (John 1:1, 14). His message has exceeded the prophets, because it is the fulfillment of everything they had previously promised. He is the fulfillment.

It’s similar to why a woman’s “I do” at the altar is better than her “Yes” at engagement. “Yes” is the happy promise to marry, but “I do” is the actual marrying (which is the reason she said “Yes” in the first place — and the reason he asked!). So “I do” is the goal and fulfillment of “Yes.”

In the same way, Isaiah’s prophecy that the Suffering Servant will “make an offering for guilt” (Isaiah 53:10) is surpassed by Jesus’s words from the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). “It is finished” was the goal, and is now the fulfillment, of “he will make an offering for guilt.” And Jesus himself is that offering.

What would be our lot if Jesus had not come? What realities and beauties and graces we live in would become untrue? What would we not know if he had not come?

On the one hand, it’s an impossible question. The whole universe is in him, through him, and for him (Colossians 1:16). Without him, everything comes apart. But on the other hand, it can help us appreciate his coming to consider some of the numerous individual blessings owing directly to it. Which are some of the most important truths in all the world and throughout all time.

If Jesus had not come, we would not know God’s complete faithfulness. We would not know the fulfillment of every last promise, including the very first one he made: that an offspring of Eve would crush the head of our great adversary, Satan (Genesis 3:15).

If Jesus had not come, we would not know the fullness of God’s love. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), and “God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

If Jesus did not come, we would not know the depths of God’s humility and compassion toward us. According to Hebrews 2:17, Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Jesus was made like us in every respect — he took on all of our weaknesses and temptations and sufferings. And he did it that he might be a more merciful advocate for us.

Finally, if Jesus did not come, we would not know his atoning death and life-giving resurrection, and thus we would not know our own salvation. There would be no salvation for sinners. “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” (Romans 5:10).

Seeing and enjoying Jesus as the incomparable Son of God, and the embodiment of his greatest blessings, is the only true way to have him.

This is the most urgent item on the agenda today and every day. May God give you fresh eyes to see and enjoy the Son, and the grace to keep seeing and enjoying him with ever-increasing clarity, joy, and awe.

 

Jesus Doesn’t Love You Like That

Either Jesus died to save his church or he didn’t. There isn’t a third option.

Either he gave himself up for his bride, as Ephesians 5:25 tells us, or he died to create the possibility of her salvation that depends upon the skills of human decision-making.

Are we dead in our sins, as Ephesians 2:1–3 says, or are we slightly impaired? Are we “far from the peaceful shore” or are we gone, sunken to the bottom of the ocean with no chance of resuscitation? Does God toss us a floatation device, or does he raise us from the dead?

Was the cross of Christ a triumph over sin and evil, as Colossians 2:14–15 says, or was it just a nice first-move? Is Jesus victorious for the sake of his church, or did he spot us a few points? Did he suffer at Golgotha to demonstrate God’s grace to sinners, or was it a presentation of sorta-kinda-maybe hope for those smart enough to understand?

Did Jesus drain the dregs of God’s wrath meant for his people, or did he merely mute original sin and leave the destiny of our eternal souls in our own hands?

How we answer these questions has everything to do with what we think about our sin and the glory of Jesus, and therefore, it gets at the heart of the gospel.

What makes the gospel good news? Is it only the potential to be saved, which would grossly miscalculate human ability and undermine the blood of Jesus, or is it the declaration, “It is finished!” — that Jesus has demolished every obstacle that keeps his people from everlasting joy in God?

The Bible is clear. The gospel is God’s work, God’s victory. “He does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: he plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies” (Packer, Quest for Godliness, 130). And here is where we see his love — the kind that breaks through the sternest soul in sovereign power to save. The love of Jesus is sin-crushing, serpent-stomping, death-defying, people-purchasing love.

Softly and tenderly tip-toeing around the doors of our heart, giving his life to give us a chance, crossing his fingers that we will invite him into our lives . . .
no, Jesus doesn’t love us like that.

Jesus Saves

The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. (Luke 19:10)

Christianity is summed up in these words: Jesus came to seek and save the lost. If we were asked to describe in a sentence the heart of the gospel, there it is.

There is no other news like this. Every other religion says it backwards. Every other religion tells us to seek. We are advised to climb trees like Zacchaeus, to depend upon our own exertion for any hope of ascending to the divine. We are told to bridge the gulf by our effort. If you want salvation, they say, then seek it.

In a sense, that is the world — we live in a planet full of seekers. We are, in one way or another, tree-climbers, maneuvering ourselves to gain some advantage, to achieve some perspective, to find personal peace. And then Jesus comes.

We are lost in our own seeking until Jesus comes and says to us, “Hurry and come down” (Luke 19:5). Stop your searching. Stop trying to save yourself. I have come to seek and save the lost.

Our exertion is then silenced. All our seeking — our trying to reach the divine on our own — is silenced when we learn that the divine has reached down to us . . . by becoming one of us. Here we are, spinning our wheels in hopes of getting God, and then God, despite our belittling works, comes to get us. That gulf we couldn’t bridge is the burden he takes upon himself.

We were lost, sinners who rightly deserve God’s judgment. And Jesus came to take the judgment for us. He suffered in our place on the cross, was dead and buried, and then on the third day was raised to life. He ascended to the Father’s right hand from where he reigns over all. Jesus sought us, and he has saved us, if we trust him. Do you believe this? Do you feel the wonder of this salvation?

Jesus, you are the one who saves, not us. Thank you for rest, for hushing the furious winds of our faithless works. Thank you for stopping the strivings of our souls. Overcome us more and more with the glory of your grace, and make our posture toward others echo this summary of your gospel: “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

When Jesus Haunts Your Halloween

Unclean spirits stir. Demonic thrones and dominions gather. Cosmic powers over this present darkness come to attention. And the devil himself, ready to devour and destroy, ignites his fiery darts and stretches his legs for the lion’s prowl.

As All Hallows’ Eve draws nigh, the spiritual forces of evil align, and Satan prepares his hordes for the party of the year — the grand harvest festival, celebration of darkness and death, when they pretend to be their strongest.

Halloween is almost here. But so is their final defeat. Jesus haunts their Halloween.

As the demonic rulers and authorities make ready, the one who sits in the heavens laughs (Psalm 2:4). To him, the devil is no threat, with all his orcs and goblins and the wickedest of witches. This is no evenly matched bout. If the incarnate Christ, in his humblest state, commands unclean spirits and they obey him (Mark 1:27) — how much more the risen and glorified Lord? Jesus does the real haunting.

Even as his adversaries marshal their best, they can’t escape serving his purposes. It is all through him and for him. “By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). Jesus haunts their Halloween.

No demon lurks apart from his will. No spirit pounces apart from his plan. He is sovereign over even the movements of evil minds. “God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17).

Luther nailed it — one little word shall fell them. Jesus haunts their Halloween.

It is precisely when the devil feigns to be his fiercest that Jesus delivers the deathblow. It was a Halloween-like gathering of ghouls and goblins at Golgotha when “he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15).

Jesus came to conquer fear, to haunt whatever haunts. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). He stooped to share in our flesh and blood “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14–15).

Those who are in Christ have no need to fear the night. This is now our day. He has won it for us, and will not leave us to fend for ourselves in the devil’s domain. God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). This we know: “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

“Take heart; I have overcome the world,” he says (John 16:33). Every inch of this universe — every single one — is his. And that includes All Hallows’ Eve and all its worst. He is the one who empowers us to “withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:13). And he says that just as he squashed the Serpent’s skull with his heel, so “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). Our feet. Get your boots.

Jesus haunts their Halloween. And so too he must haunt ours.

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14) and “put on the new self” (Colossians 3:10). Dressed in the full armor of God, we “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11) on the exact night when he’d most want us to circle the wagons. We have a Book and will “not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). We take up the shield of faith “with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we pour in the extra energy and creativity to capitalize on this opportunity to meet new neighbors and go deep with the old — whether we’re ushering our kids from house to house or leaving our lights on and giving out the best candy.

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we remember that our enemy is not the scariest-clad Halloween reveler, but “the god of this world” who has blinded their minds and keeps them “from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We war not against unbelievers but “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we look on the cheekiest carousers with compassion — as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). On this night, as much as any, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” and so we “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37–38). And we walk in faith to be those workers.

And when Jesus haunts our Halloween, we fight not only Satan, but fear in our souls. We see that our Halloween horrors reveal our lack of faith in who Jesus is, what he has accomplished, and that he has commissioned us.

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we do not flee, but go on the offensive. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). We don’t retreat, but resist — with level heads and open eyes. “Be soberminded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). We engage, with care and with courage.

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we remember that the forces of evil, which we can be so prone to fear, are actually terrified of Jesus. Everyday is a spook for the devil and his demons, and Jesus does the haunting. The decisive blow has been dealt, and soon we will land the final punch.

Jesus has promised his gospel will advance (Matthew 24:14). He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail (Matthew 16:18). And so when Jesus haunts our Halloween, we join the triumphant anthem:

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55–57)

What Did Jesus Mean When He Said We Would Do Greater Work Than He Did?

First of all, he said that to his disciples and only to us indirectly, if at all. He is speaking to the first-century church, and he makes the statement that the works they do will be greater than the works that he performed (John 14:12). Let me tell you what I don’t think it means.

There are many today who believe that there are people running around this world right now who are performing greater miracles, performing miracles in greater abundance, and actually doing more incredible acts of divine healing than Jesus himself did. I can’t think of any more serious delusion than that, that somebody would actually think they have exceeded Jesus in terms of the works he has done. There’s nobody who comes close to the work that Jesus did.

There’s nobody who comes close to the work that Jesus did.

Some say that perhaps we can’t do greater works than Jesus individually but that corporately we are able to exceed in power the things that Jesus did. We see amazing things happening in the first-century church through the power that Christ gave to his apostles. We see people raised from the dead through Peter and Paul. But at the same time I would challenge people by telling them to add up all of the miracles that, according to New Testament records, were wrought through the hands of Paul, Peter, and the rest of the disciples corporately, put them all together, and see if they measure a greater degree than those which our Lord performed. If Jesus meant that people would do greater miracles than he performed in the sense of displaying more power and more astonishing things than he did, then obviously one of the works that Jesus failed to perform was sound prophecy, because that just didn’t happen. Nobody exceeded Jesus’ works. That’s what leads me to believe that’s not what he meant. I think he’s using the term “greater” in a different way.

I heard a church historian say that he was convinced that when Jesus made the statement “Greater works than these will you do,” he was referring to the whole scope of the impact of Christ’s people and his church on the world throughout history. I know a lot of people look at the history of Western civilization and say that the bulk of the church’s influence has been negative—the black eye of the Crusades, the Galileo episode, and holy wars, etc. If you look at the record, you will see that it was the Christian church that spearheaded the abolition of slavery, the end of the Roman arena, the whole concept of education, the concept of charitable hospitals and orphanages, and a host of other humanitarian activities. I think, personally, that that’s what Jesus meant when he talked about greater works.

 

Jesus Sings

Jesus sings.

If Scripture didn’t say it, I wouldn’t either. But it’s true. In four places in Scripture we read that Jesus, the Son of God himself, raised his voice in worship.1

Which is immediately confusing on one level. It's not that there's anything wrong with singing, just that I imagine our Savior much better suited as the silent recipient of adoration and worship (Revelation 5:6–14). But he also sings. And the only way to understand why Jesus sings is to briefly walk through all four passages (here split into three categories).

Both passages are brief. We read that Jesus sang a hymn with the disciples at the conclusion of the Lord’s Supper. It was just before he set out to pray on the Mount of Olives. In their fellowship, Jesus lifted up his voice and sang a hymn, a customary finale to a Passover meal together. And that’s it. The biblical writers have little more to say about it.

Very likely this song was some portion of Psalm 114–118, and very likely it was sung antiphonally, meaning Jesus led the men by singing a line, and the disciples responded by singing a “Hallelujah.” Back and forth they responsively marched through a psalm in song.2 Given the profoundly messianic lyrics, and the timing of the meal, I imagine it was a memorable evening of sober theological reflection.

But most of the details about the song and how they sung it are left unsaid.

Jesus sang. We know that much.

In this next passage we find a New Testament writer quoting a line from a rich messianic psalm, Psalm 22:22. The psalm seems to be used to illustrate the solidarity of the incarnate Christ and believers.

Apparently embedded in Christ's incarnation is his commitment to participate in community worship. And if this is true, it helps to explain his commitment to local synagogues during his ministry. But this may also help explain why Jesus sings with his disciples. At the Lord’s Supper, he raised his voice in worship of his Father, and by this he actively engaged in the disciples’ humanity. He shared their life, participating in their human experience (Hebrews 2:14).

He sang to make possible his unique, substitutionary work on the cross. Christ was not ashamed to stand beside us. He was not ashamed to become our brother (Hebrews 2:11). What inconceivable mercy that he was not ashamed to suffer and die for us! His participation with humanity qualifies him to suffer as our punitive and substitutionary sacrifice (Hebrews 2:10).

Jesus, as the perfect worshipper, sang hymns to the Father. As we will see in a moment, he continues to sing hymns to the Father. But here we need to see that Jesus sang because he is our Brother.

In this final text, the Apostle Paul also cites from the Old Testament a line from David and his psalm of thanksgiving (Psalm 18:49). But in the Old Testament language we discover a singer engaged in more than a solo. Here the singing includes an instrument, and David takes a role similar to that of a worship leader (?????). Again, a corporate theme emerges here.

Of course any Jewish worship leader could lead the Jewish nation in worship. But this worship leader has set his sights on something larger, on leading worship among all the Gentile nations. This worship leader will not sing in spite of the Gentiles, but he will sing among the Gentiles.

Paul is speaking about Christ by his reference to Psalm 18:49. The resurrected Christ is a victor and has taken his place as a global worship leader. “According to Paul’s citation, the risen Messiah confesses and praises the divine name among the Gentiles, bringing them salvation,” writes Mark Seifrid, a Bible scholar. “Behind and before the single mouth by which believing Jews and Gentiles glorify God (Romans 15:6) is the mouth of the Messiah, who makes known the name of God to them (Romans 15:9).”3

So Christ fulfills a two-directional ministry as our mediator:

Jesus mediates our relationship with God (God-to-man).Jesus mediates all our worship of God (man-to-God).

This twofold mediating work of Christ is inseparable.

God is worshipped around the globe as a result of the all-sufficient work of the resurrected Christ. In this way, Jesus is the Perfect Worshipper of his Father. And from heaven he fulfills the role of Chief Worship Leader of the global church.

Behind the corporate worship in our local church, and behind the global worship of the nations, is our mediator, our Brother, the Perfect Worshipper, and our perfect Worship Leader. We are united to Christ, and in him all our worship is brought together into one global choir to the praise of the Father.4

Jesus sang.

Jesus still sings.

Can you hear him?

1 For the technical exegesis behind this conclusion see Vern Sheridan Poythress, "Ezra 3, Union With Christ, And Exclusive Psalmody" Westminster Theological Journal, 37/1 (Fall 1974), 73–94.
2 D. A. Carson, "Matthew," The Expositor's Bible Commentary (Zondervan, 1984), 8:539.
3 In G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Baker Academic, 2007), 689.
4 The concluding summary paragraphs are largely developed from the writings of John Calvin, Edmond Clowney, and from Reggie Kidd’s book, With One Voice: Discovering Christ's Song in Our Worship (Baker, 2005).

Jesus Gives Us Reasons to Obey

It’s puzzling. When I speak on living by faith I often ask, "How many of you know that Jesus calls us to love our enemies?" Everyone nods and says they know this.

Then I ask, "How many of you know the reason Jesus gives for why we should love our enemies?" Almost always the response is the same — very few know the reason.

Why don’t we know the reason?

Are we so good at loving our enemies that we don’t need Jesus’ reason? Um — no. I’m not so good at loving my enemies. And I’m pretty sure we all need help in this. And yet we remember only the command — but not the reason Jesus gives to help us obey the command.

What is the reason?

Here’s what Jesus taught in Luke 6:35, "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great." Jesus motivates our love for enemies with the promise of reward — more of his heart-satisfying presence.

Here’s how this works: When we know that Christ has secured for us the joy of his presence forever — and that loving our enemies will bring us even more of that joy — we will be freed and motivated to love our enemies. So — if we aren’t very good at loving our enemies — and this reason would help us love our enemies — why don’t we remember the reason? It’s strange.

Imagine someone said “Walk three miles down to the Bank — and you will receive three billion dollars.” Notice there’s a command — and there’s a reason to help you obey the command. So, while you are walking to the Bank, is it possible you might forget the reason? Not a chance.

And yet — when Jesus urges us to love our enemies because of a reward infinitely better than three billion dollars — we remember the command but can’t think of the reason. [Stunned silence.]

Can you feel how wrong that is? So why do we do that? Here are my thoughts:

If this is what we’ve heard then we’ll assume rewards aren’t supposed to motivate us or that they are not very important, and we’ll forget them.

But over and over again God does motivate us with promises of reward. So they must be important.

See, gratitude does not replace reward. Gratitude reminds us of God’s past faithfulness so we trust his promise of future reward. So nurture gratitude and be motivated by God’s promise of reward.

This shows a misunderstanding of rewards. Biblical rewards are not something apart from God. Every reward involves more of God.

Like Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

So God is enough motivation — he is the reward.

It’s tragic that people obey God in order to get health or wealth. But that’s not how Jesus motivates us. Jesus motivates us with the promise of himself — like in John 14:23, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Why keep Jesus’s word? Because if I do, I will experience more of the Father and Son’s all-satisfying presence. So the alternative to the health-and-wealth gospel is not don’t pursue rewards. It is pursue God as your reward.

What do we do when we struggle to love our enemies?

What Jesus wants us to do is open our Bibles, find the reasons he gives to empower love for enemies, and pray over those reasons until the Holy Spirit changes our hearts.

But too often that’s not what we do. Too often we just rely on our own will-power, grit our teeth, and try harder. Which shows that we think we have the will-power to obey Jesus. But we don’t. Which is why he gives reasons which the Spirit will use to empower obedience.

Three miles is a long walk. I’m getting tired. I’m not sure I want to do this. I’d rather turn left and head to the beach.

Wait. 

What reason did he give me for walking to the Bank?  Oh, that’s right. There’s three billion dollars waiting for me!

Suddenly I’m no longer tired. I want to get to the Bank. Forget the beach.

That’s how reasons help us obey.

So learn the reasons in Scripture — and use the reasons in Scripture.

See you at the Bank.

Jesus Says to Rome

You have heard that it was said to those of old, “Pray to Mary, and petition the Saints.” But I say to you that there is only one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). You need no other go-between than me. Do you not know that you already have an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1)? Do you not know that I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)? So, when you pray, ask in my name, that the Father may be glorified in the Son (John 14:13).

You have heard that it was said, “Kneel before the consecrated host, and worship the one sacrificed in the mass.” But I say to you that when I had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, I sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until my enemies should be made a footstool for my feet. For by a single offering I have perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:12–14). And have you not heard that where there is forgiveness of sins, there is no longer any offering for sin (Hebrews 10:18)? I meant it when I said on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

You have heard that it was said, “Honor the pope.” But I say to you that this is a sadly misguided understanding of the role my disciple Peter played and the reality of succession in the church. The Rock on which I have built my church (Matthew 16:18) for two millennia is not Peter alone, but the band of the apostles together (Ephesians 2:20). All my specially appointed apostles, not just Peter, are my expressly commissioned authoritative spokesmen for my church (John 14:26; 15:26–27; 16:13). Their authority is not their own, but mine. I am the one who has authority (Matthew 7:29), not your ecclesiastical scribes. And when I ascended, it was my apostles together, not Peter alone, who served as my authoritative on-the-ground spokesmen in the first generation of the church. At my word, it was the apostles’ spoken and written words that served as the early church’s final authority — and when the apostles had passed, it was their preserved writings that have carried my voice as the church’s final authority these two thousand years, not the accumulated traditions of the church.

Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, “Priests are prohibited to marry.” But I say to you, I appreciate that you’re listening to 1 Corinthians 7, but what about the other things I have to say through my inspired spokesmen? I say twice that a presbuteros must be the husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6) — without, in any way, excluding the celibate (like me, and Paul) from church office, but also emphatically not excluding the married. Why do you exclude them from your priesthood, except upon special exception? Celibacy is a special calling, not to be coerced with church law. Have I not been equally clear that it is better to marry than to burn with passion (1 Corinthians 7:9)?

You have heard that it was said, “Your acceptance with God is not based solely on another’s goodness, but also on your own.” But I say to you, do not rob me of my full glory in your full acceptance before God. Let me be honored as the one who alone forgives your sins (Mark 2:10), and the one who alone provides the perfect righteousness you need to be accepted by God (Philippians 3:9). It is true that you get involved in your ongoing holiness as my righteousness is imparted to you after you have been fully accepted (Romans 6:12–14). But don’t jump the gun by thinking you could ever muster holiness enough to earn your acceptance with the thrice-holy God. It is not the godly that my Father justifies, but the ungodly (Romans 4:6). Do you not know how profoundly sinful you are (Romans 3:23), that it is impossible for those in the flesh to please God (Romans 8:8), that no mere human effort can ever justify you in my Father’s sight (Romans 3:20)? You need Another’s work to count for you — the perfect life and death of the one God-man who came to earth to achieve for you the acceptance with God that you could not achieve for yourself.

You have heard that it was said, “The Scriptures are the product of the Church. The authorized tradition sits alongside the Scriptures as your final authority.” But I say to you, for the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God (Matthew 15:6). In my new-covenant marriage with my bride, the Groom speaks the authoritative final word, not the Bride. It is my voice the sheep hear and follow (John 10:3–4, 27), not the voice of the church.

It was the unique, irreplaceable apostles whom I specially trained for over three years and specially appointed as my authoritative spokesmen. The old-covenant prophets and new-covenant apostles have spoken for me and about me (John 5:39, 46; Luke 24:25–27, 44–45; Ephesians 3:5; 2 Peter 3:1–2). It is my voice in their recorded words that is your final authority for doctrine and practice. When I say your final authority is Scripture alone — sola Scriptura — I mean the writings of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). And when I say the apostles and prophets, I mean that I myself am the Word (John 1:1), God’s final say (Hebrews 1:2). I am the Church’s final authority, and the way that I have appointed to mediate that authority to you is not through ongoing church tradition, but through the apostolic and prophetic word alone.

By setting your accumulated traditions alongside the Scriptures, you have emptied my word of its power (Matthew 15:6). You have been taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8). Putting the traditions of men on par with the words of God means losing the words of God. No matter how hard you try to hold divine revelation equal to human tradition as your final authority, the words of man will inevitably distort and diminish the words of God.

Jesus Understands Loneliness

“He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” (Isaiah 53:3)

Sometimes we feel alone in the world. Jesus understands this feeling. In a very human sense, he was alone.  

Imagine what living in this world was like for Jesus. He was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). That might sound like a pleasant problem to deal with. I don’t think so. I think it was tormenting. Peter described sinful Lot’s experience in Sodom as being tormented day after day by the “lawless deeds that he saw and heard” (2 Peter 2:8). How much worse was it for sinless Jesus living in a world of sin?

Imagine what his childhood was like. He would have been odd, sticking out morally like a sore thumb, never quite fitting in with any group, even his own family.

Even his loving parents wouldn’t have fully understood him. Nor would they have been able to protect him from others’ stinging remarks and maybe cruel mocking over his unsullied strangeness.

I wonder how much came from his siblings? His brothers and sisters (Matthew 13:55–56) would have grown increasingly self-conscious around him, aware of their own sinful, self-obsessed motives and behavior, while noting that Jesus didn’t seem to exhibit any himself. What resentments accrued? All was not harmonious because Jesus’s own brothers didn’t believe in him (John 7:5), possibly until after his resurrection (Acts 1:14).

Jesus was a sinless person living with sinful parents, sinful siblings, sinful extended relatives and sinful neighbors. No one on earth could identify with him. No human being could put an arm around him as he sat in tears and say, “I know exactly what you’re going through.” His sorrow and grief (Isaiah 53:3) began way before Gethsemane.

But Jesus’s loneliness reached its apex the moment he became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) on the cross and was “forsaken” by his Father (Matthew 27:46). First he was estranged by sinlessness and then from being sin. Jesus knew supreme rejection and loneliness.

Which makes him perfectly suited to understand yours. He is a high priest who can sympathize with this weakness (Hebrews 4:15).

But Jesus doesn’t just understand your loneliness; he’s destroying it. Because he died on your behalf, you are no longer truly a stranger or alien, but you are a fellow citizen with the saints and a member of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19). Because Jesus was alienated from God and man, you will enjoy the full family fellowship of God and all of his redeemed saints forever.

Child of God, your loneliness is passing away. The day is nearing when you will know as you have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13:12). And the fading loneliness you still feel Jesus understands.

So “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that [you] may receive mercy and find grace to help” with every lonely need (Hebrews 4:16).  

Jesus Christ: Our True Mercy Seat

In the tabernacle, the ark of the covenant was the place of propitiation. How could a holy God dwell in the midst of a sinful people? Further, how could a sinful people ever hope to approach a holy God and not be destroyed, as were Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:1–3)? That brings us to an unusual but important theological term that we need to know and experience: propitiation.

To understand this word, think about how a mother and father become angry when a child sins. How does the child persuade his parents to cease to be angry and become happy with him? In our home, our children have to sit in a timeout, then tell us what they did wrong, and finally ask for forgiveness. Then we give big hugs and kisses. That’s propitiation. It means turning away anger. In the Bible, propitiation is an act by which God’s wrath is turned away from us. The imagery is expressed in Psalm 85, which says,

Lord, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin.
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger. (vv. 1–3)

Toward this end, God gave a distinct set of instructions for the ark’s lid (Ex. 25:17–22), called the kapporet in Hebrew. When the Old Testament was translated into Latin, this word was translated as propitiatorium, which means “the place of propitiation.” The standard English translation is “the mercy seat” (KJV).

This lid, then, was the place of propitiation, the place where the wrath of God was turned away from His people. As John Calvin wrote about the mercy seat: “God was propitiated towards believers by the covering of the Law, so as to shew Himself favorable to them by hearing their vows and prayers. For as long as the law stands forth before God’s face it subjects us to His wrath and curse; and hence it is necessary that the blotting out of our guilt should be interposed, so that God may be reconciled with us.” But while there was a morning and an evening sacrifice on the altar in the courtyard every day, as well as the offerings of the individual worshipers, these merely covered over sins and pointed forward to one great propitiatory sacrifice. In contrast, there was only one day a year when sacrificial blood was offered on the kapporet to propitiate the wrath of almighty God. As Leviticus 16 describes in great detail, on the annual Day of Atonement, propitiation was made by means of a substitutionary sacrifice.

As new-covenant believers, we know that these annual sacrifices were only pictures of the propitiation of God’s wrath. We see the powerlessness of the animal sacrifices in Hebrews 9:13–14, which says: “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” Just as Jesus alone can cleanse the soul and conscience, He alone can turn away the wrath of God, since He is our propitiation (Rom. 3:25; 1 John 2:2; 4:10).

The Lord is present in our midst in public worship just as He was in the tabernacle, but is He present to judge or to save? In a more personal way, will He look on our sins or will He look on Jesus Christ in our place? The Lord provided the Israelites a place of propitiation on the ark’s lid, and He still provides a place today. That “place” is Jesus Christ. He offers Himself to us. He turns away the wrath of God from us. He cleanses us of our sins. He cancels them out. He nullifies their power. He brings us into the presence of God blameless and acceptable. Confess your sins to Him and believe that Jesus Christ will propitiate God’s wrath against you. In this way, you shall be saved.

Learn more about the tabernacle, and how above-all it reveals Christ, in my new book, God in Our Midst: The Tabernacle & Our Relationship with God.

Adapted from God in Our Midst. Available now from ReformationTrust.com

The One Road to Heaven: Jesus Christ

Before the mountains were brought forth, or the earth and world were formed, Jesus Christ was like the Father, very God. From the beginning He was foreordained to be the Savior of sinners. He was always the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, without whose blood there could be no remission. The same Jesus, to whom alone we may look for salvation, that same Jesus was the only hope of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and all the patriarchs; what we are privileged to see distinctly they doubtless saw indistinctly – but the Savior both we and they rest upon is one. It was Christ Jesus who was foretold in all the prophets, and foreshadowed and represented in all the law – the daily sacrifice of the lamb, the cities of refuge, the brazen serpent, all these were so many emblems to Israel of that Redeemer who was yet to come, and without whom no person could be saved. There never was but one road to heaven: Jesus Christ was the way, the truth and the life yesterday as well as today.

~ J.C. Ryle

Tract: The Unchanging Christ

June 28: Jesus Wept

“Jesus wept.” John 11:35

PERHAPS to some whose tearful eye may glance on these pages, the most touching and endearing chapter in our Lord’s life of varied and affecting incident is that which portrays Him in Bethany’s house of mourning, and bending over the grave of Lazarus—thus illustrating His peculiar sympathy with the bereaved. It would seem as if Jesus loved to visit the haunts of human woe. “Lord, if You had been here, my brother had not died,” were words bursting from the lips of the two bereaved sisters, which seemed to chide the delay of an interposition, which might have averted their sad calamity. And why that delay? Would it not seem as if one reason was, that the cup of woe was not yet brimmed, and thus the time for the richest display of His human sympathy and Divine power had not yet come? But when death had invaded that happy circle, had cast its shadow over the sunny home, and the sorrow of bereavement was now bursting each heart—lo! Jesus appears, gently lifts the latch, and enters. And who has passed within that dark abode of grief? The Creator of all worlds, the Lord of angels and of men, robed in a real, a suffering, and a sympathizing humanity, to mingle with the daughters of sorrow.

Returning from the house of mourning, we follow Him to the grave. Groaning in spirit, He asks, “Where have you laid him?” And then it is written—and oh, never were words more full of meaning—”Jesus wept!” The incarnate God in tears! Oh marvelous sympathy! such as earth never before saw, and such as heaven in astonishment looked down to see. But why did Jesus weep? Was such an expression of sensibility in keeping with the occasion? Was He not about to recall His friend to life again? And did He not know, that before the sun had declined an hour, He should have robbed death of his victim, and the grave of its prey, restoring gladness to those bereaved sisters, and the sunshine of joy to that desolate home? Most assuredly. And yet “Jesus wept!”

Oh, it was sympathy! Those tears were the outgushing of a sensibility He could not repress, nor wished to conceal. Moved by His own loss, He was yet more deeply moved with the loss of Martha and Mary. He stood at that grave, as though He were the chief mourner, upon whom the brunt of the calamity had fallen; and there were no tears flowing at that moment like His. He wept, because He was human—He wept, because He was bereaved—He wept, because others wept. It was a sympathetic emotion, that now agitated to its center his whole soul. Behold Him who makes His people’s sorrows all His own!

Bereaved one! that speaking, weeping Brother was born for your adversity! Though now in glory, where no tears are shed, He still sympathizes with the sorrows of the bereaved on earth—yes, sympathizes with yours. Into all the circumstances of your present calamity—the irreparable loss it has entailed, the deep void it has created, the profound grief it has awakened, the painful changes it involves, the sable gloom with which, to your bedimmed eye, it enshrouds all the future of life—He fully enters. And though, when the storm-cloud of Divine vengeance was darkling above His head, Gethsemane and Calvary full in view, not a nerve quivered, nor a tear fell—yet, lo! He comes and weeps with you, and breathes the soothing balmy influence, of a human sympathy over the scene and the sadness of your sorrow. Christian mourner! the weeping One of Bethany is near you! Christ is with you, Christ is in your sorrow.

Jesus Commends Shrewd Money Managers

In Luke 16:1–9, Jesus told his disciples an odd parable where he used a dishonest manager as an example of shrewdness. What did he mean? Imagine a discussion about this between disciples Simon (the Zealot) and Matthew.

________

“Matthew, you know more about these things than I do. Why did the Master commend the dishonest manager’s shrewdness?”

Simon’s question stung a bit and Matthew’s look said so.

“Oh. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

Simon and Matthew were unlikely friends. And it had been pretty rocky between them at first.

Simon had been a zealot with a lethal hatred of the Romans. He had once sworn himself to the sacred cause of driving them out of Israel. But even more he had loathed Jews who were complicit in the Roman subjugation and pillaging of God’s people. Jews like Matthew. Matthew had collected taxes for Rome — and himself. He had simply seen it as a shrewd and lucrative career move. And prior to Jesus calling him from his booth he had had zero time for the foolish zealot idealism of people like Simon. Theirs was a utopic delusion — a handful of angry Jews taking on Caesar’s legions. It was a death wish, an appointment with a Roman cross.

Now they, the former zealot and former tax collector, were friends. Only Jesus could have made that happen.

“What did you mean?” Matthew asked.

“I just meant . . . you used to be . . .

“A shrewd dishonest manager?”

“I’m not saying you were just like . . .”

“Stop tripping over yourself, Simon. I was every bit as shrewdly dishonest and worse. I know it. It’s just painful to remember what I used to be.

“Which master are you saying commended the manager?”

“Well, that’s where I’m confused. It almost sounded like Jesus commended the self-protective actions of the manager. But I know that’s not right. How is this corrupt scoundrel supposed to be an example for ‘the sons of light’?”

Matthew smiled and replied, “Generosity.”

“Generosity? The only thing he was generous with was his master’s money!”

“Exactly. Simon, that’s our Master’s point. The manager used his master’s money to win favor with those who could provide him a place to live when he lost his job.”

“And that’s a good thing?”

“No. But as a ‘son of this world’ he knew how this world works. So he used worldly shrewdness so he wouldn’t be homeless. Even his worldly master appreciated his cunning. Jesus is saying that the ‘sons of light’ need to be at least as shrewd about how the kingdom works.”

Simon replied, “Which is completely different.”

“Completely. But what we do is similar to what the dishonest manager did.”

“You mean we’re generous with our Master’s money.”

“Right.”

Simon thought for a moment. “So, it’s just what he meant by “sell your possessions, and give to the needy” so that we will have “a treasure in the heavens that does not fail” (Luke 12:33). Shrewd ‘sons of light’ give away “unrighteous wealth” and make friends of God, who is our eternal dwelling (Deuteronomy 33:27).

“Exactly. That’s the shrewdness our Master commends.”

________

Our heavenly Master has made us all managers of “unrighteous wealth” (Luke 16:9). As John Piper says,

The possession of money in this world is a test run for eternity. Can you pass the test of faithfulness with your money? Do you use it as a means of proving the worth of God and the joy you have in supporting his cause? Or does the way you use it prove that what you really enjoy is things, not God?

These are questions we all must ask ourselves. Because Jesus wants us to be shrewd with our money (Luke 16:8–9), and kingdom shrewdness looks like this:

 Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:32–34).

 

Jesus: Lord of Feast and Famine, Homeruns and Strikeouts

. . . I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11–13)

Smash a homer. Climb a mountain. Blast through the pile for a touchdown. Run a marathon. Establish a new personal best on the bench press. Hit the game-winning shot. You can do it. I can do all things through him who gives me strength!

So some would say.

Snatch this powerful verse from its context and plug it right into your triumphalistic American athletic Christianity. Or take a step back and see the bigger picture. And see that there’s even more power than maybe you imagined.

Philippians 4:13 isn’t mainly about doing all the great things you’d want to do anyways, but sprinkled with a little Jesus gusto. Rather, the verse is mainly about how Jesus is strong enough to give us contentment in life’s very worst circumstances.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians from a dirty, miserable first-century jail, not from the end zone or the top of a freshly scaled mountain.

Yes, he does want to make sure that Christians are able to handle the good times. He wants us to remember Jesus when all is well, when we’re at life’s peaks. To thank Jesus when we succeed. To express appreciation when there’s a feast set before us. To bring him to mind as the giver of every good gift when we’re swimming in abundance.

But just as much as he wants us to lean on Jesus when times are good, he wants us to have strength from Jesus to endure when things are hardest. Maybe even more so.

When we’ve been humbled or embarrassed. When there’s no food on the table — can you imagine that? When our team loses. When we’re unmotivated. When we err. When we’re feeling depressed. When we think we may have lost the strength to go on. That’s precisely when we need strength from Jesus.

Jesus is the one who by his Holy Spirit loves to give strength to his people both for doing life’s most enjoyable things and for enduring in life’s hardest things. Jesus is the strength-giver both for eating a good meal with thanksgiving and for missing one with thanksgiving. Jesus is big enough to sustain us when we’re low. He’s strong enough to hold us when we’re at our weakest. We can do all things — not just the things we want most to do, but even (and especially) the things we want least to do — through Jesus who strengths us.

Jesus is Lord over feast and famine. Lord over homeruns and strikeouts. He is Lord over touchdowns and fumbles. Lord over web-gems and errors. He is big enough to be relatively unimpressed with your greatest accomplishments and kind enough to be gentle in your greatest failures. He is Lord not only over champions, gold-medalists, and MVPs, but also Lord over losers, failures, and the disqualified.

According to 1 Corinthians 1:26–29, he is perhaps Lord all the more over the losers:

Consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

So when you’re at your highest, turn to Jesus in gratitude and for the strength to take the next step. And when you’re at your lowest, turn to Jesus in faith that he’ll provide for you the strength to keep going.

It’s true — in Jesus we really can do all things — especially, be content in him in the midst of life’s most difficult, painful, and tragic circumstances. Leaning always on the Savior is learning the secret for everything.

Jesus Also Had Unbelieving Family Members

Do you, like me, have family members who do not believe in Jesus? If so, we are in good company. So did Jesus. And I think this is meant to give us hope. 

According to the Apostle John, “not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). That’s incredible. Those who had lived with Jesus for 30 years really did not know him. Not one of Jesus’ brothers is mentioned as a disciple during his pre-crucifixion ministry. But after his resurrection and ascension, there they are in the upper room worshiping him as God (Acts 1:14).

Why didn’t they believe? And what made them change?

The Bible doesn’t answer the first question. But I’ll bet it was difficult to have Jesus for a brother.

First, Jesus would have been without peer in intellect and wisdom. He was astounding temple rabbis by age 12 (Luke 2:42, 47). A sinful, fallen, gifted sibling can be a hard act to follow. Imagine a perfect, gifted sibling.

Second, Jesus’ consistent and extraordinary moral character must have made him odd and unnerving to be around. His siblings would have grown increasingly self-conscious around him, aware of their own sinful, self-obsessed motives and behavior, while noting that Jesus didn’t seem to exhibit any himself. For sinners, that could be hard to live with.

Third, Jesus was deeply and uniquely loved by Mary and Joseph. How could they not have treated him differently? They knew he was the Lord. Imagine their extraordinary trust in and deference to Jesus as he grew older. No doubt the siblings would have perceived a dimension to the relationship between the oldest child and their parents that was different from what they experienced.

And when swapping family stories it would have been hard to match a star appearing at your brother’s birth.

Jesus out-classed his siblings in every category. How could anyone with an active sin nature not resent being eclipsed by such a phenom-brother? Familiarity breeds contempt when pride rules the heart.

More pain than we know must have been behind Jesus’ words, “a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household” (Matthew 13:57).

So as we assess the role our weak, stumbling witness plays in our family members’ unbelief, let’s remember Jesus — not even a perfect witness guarantees that loved ones will see and embrace the gospel. We must humble ourselves and repent when we sin. But let’s remember that the god of this world and indwelling sin is what blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4).

The story of Jesus’ brothers can actually give us hope for our loved ones. At the time his brothers claimed that Jesus was “out of his mind” (Mark 3:21), it must have appeared very unlikely that they would ever become his disciples. But eventually they did! And not only followers, but leaders and martyrs in the early church.

The God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” shone in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of their brother, Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:6).

So take heart! Don’t give up praying for unbelieving family members. Don’t take their resistance as the final word. They may yet believe, and be used significantly in the kingdom!

And while they resist, or if they have died apparently unbelieving, we can trust them to the Judge of all the earth who will be perfectly just (Genesis 18:25). Jesus does not promise that every parent, sibling, or child of a Christian will believe, but does painfully promise that some families will divide over him (Matthew 10:34-39). We can trust him when it happens.

It is moving to hear James refer to his brother as “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James 2:1). Can you imagine what this phrase meant for James? The Lord of glory had once slept beside him, ate at his dinner table, played with his friends, spoke to him like a brother, endured his unbelief, paid the debt of his sin, and then brought him to faith.

It may have taken 20-30 years of faithful, prayerful witness by the Son of God, but the miracle occurred: his brothers believed. May the Lord of glory grant the same grace to our beloved unbelievers.

________