FreeTruth

Friday Gayline and I shared the gospel with two people: one a 40 year old God-cursing, foul, furious sinner, the other a smiling, smug, 80 year old God-refusing do-gooder. The first hated God because he'd been molested by a priest. The other refused God because, well, she was simply so good that she couldn't conceive how she needed Him.

Both were equally doomed; both equally in need of grace; both equally savable at the foot of the cross. But probably the first will find that salvation long before the second. Unlike her he won't have to dig through mile-deep self-righteousness before he finds the filth within and sees his need.

He's the kind the Savior came to save, for Jesus is the friend of sinners. On the other hand, the 80 year old is in trouble for Jesus is the worst nightmare of the self-righteous.

Food for thought.

Labels: friend of sinners, Gospel, Grace

We had another laundry blunder yesterday. I left a couple of pens in a shirt which as you have already guessed, left several pieces of clothing forever blue-stained. No amount of home remedies for stains could remove these; they were just too deep into the threads of the clothes to be erased. When ink gets into the very threads, the very fabric of clothes, piercing the surface to saturate until there is nothing left unaffected, then stains cannot be removed.

It often feels like that with my sin, and in a sense it is like that. Sin is in the very fabric--the warp and woof (as they used to say) of my soul. O "what can wash away my sin?" the old song asks. Indeed what can cleanse what has stained the soul?

"Nothing...but the blood...of Jesus."

Today I read Mark's account of the crucifixion, and was moved by the cry of dereliction and forsakenness on the cross. Mark tells us that following that cry was another cry--which the other writers tell us was: "It is finished."

The cry of dereliction was the cry of the One damned in my place pouring out His soul as an offering for sin (Isaiah 53:10), to cleanse us from every sin stain of the soul. The cry, "It is finished" was His statement that that cleansing had been completed.

It was as if Jesus was a soul-launderer, standing over the sin-stained souls of all His beloved, pouring out His blood to pierce through to the very fabric of our being, to cleanse, to whiten, to restore. And when it was done, He looked at His work and said: "It's finished! The sins are washed away, the stains are removed, My chosen are clean. Look! It is done!."

My shirts will never be stain-free again; but my soul is.

"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
Where sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains."

Labels: Gospel, Grace

Yesterday was a wonderful day for several reasons. I am especially grateful for the way Sunday's pulpit message captured the attention of our boys. When we met at the end of the day to discuss Tim's sermon, My wife and I were surprised and delighted at how our oldest 5 sons had processed the sermon.

Something I needed to ask them was this: Did they see God as this "dazzling" figure who does wondrous things, thereby making Himself worthy first of their notice and then of their praise?
Through the years we have shared stories with them, but have largely failed in this area. They see God's amazing provision for this large family, and other "signs" that there is a God, and that He is at work in our lives, and in this world. The category is there, but it is somewhat sparse, with few illustrations to prove it out.

May I share briefly how God dazzled me many years ago? I was reminded of this story last night as we talked.

When I was single and living in Chicago, there was a time when I had a prolonged battle with a certain sin. I struggled to get past this thing, but kept returning to it. I would repent, telling God that I was done with this sin, only to fall again a few days later. This struggle eventually came to the place where I felt that I could not return to God even one more time; that my bluff was over, and that I had exhausted His patience and grace.

As I lay in bed one particular morning, after yet another fall, having determined that I could not impose any longer on the patience and forgiveness of God-- wondering what next? How does one live, having caved in to sin because of a strange kind of "integrity" that must now keep me from returning to my Father for yet another forgiveness?

As I lay there, in this waking and wondering state, my phone rang. It was my mother from New Jersey. This was strange, she doesn't call at this hour of the day. Well, she had listened to Charles Stanley's broadcast that morning, and the Spirit of God clearly told her to phone me, and to insist that I hear today's "In Touch" broadcast. This was most unusual!

My mother did not know what I was dealing with, much less that my situation had come to a head that very morning, and that I was bordering on despair because of this besetting sin. Well, that morning's broadcast could not have been more directed my situation. Clearly God Himself had spoken into my life, and convinced me, at this critical juncture, that He was still for me... ready to receive me, and continue on with me! Wow! I was "dazzled" at His grace and by His timing! I knew that morning He was in no way ready to abandon me, and that I had quite mistaken His character. Praise the Lord-- my soul is blessed even now as I remember His awesome deeds!

And I will be sure to relate this story for years to come, and to the generations that follow!

Labels: christian life, Grace, Guest Post

As promised I have a few words from another to follow up yesterday's post. Please read with astonishment and joy.

When Jesus took the curse upon himself, he so identified with our sin that he became a curse. God cut him off and justly so. This was an act of divine justice. At the moment that Christ took upon himself the sin of the world, he became the most grotesque, most obscene mass of sin in the history of the world. God is too holy to even look at iniquity. When Christ was hanging on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned his back on Christ. He removed his face. He turned out the lights. He cut off his Son. There was Jesus, who in human nature had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout his life. There was Jesus, the Son in whom the Father was well pleased. Now he hung in darkness, isolated from the Father, cut off from fellowship – fully receiving in himself the curse of God – not for his own sin but for the sin he willingly bore by imputation for our sake…I have heard many sermons about the physical pain of death by crucifixion. I’ve heard graphic descriptions of the nails and the thorns. Surely the physical agony of crucifixion was a ghastly thing. But there were thousands who died on crosses and may have had more painful deaths than that of Christ. But only one person has ever received the full measure of the curse of God while on a cross. I doubt that Jesus was even aware of the nails and the spear – he was so overwhelmed by the outer darkness. On the cross Jesus was in the reality of hell. He was totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we someday will be able to see the face of God. So that the light of his countenance might fall upon us, God turned his back on his Son. No wonder Christ screamed. He screamed from the depth of his soul. How long did he have to endure it? We don’t know, but a second of it would have been of infinite value…Finally, Jesus cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). It was over. What was over? His life? The pain of the nails? No. It was the forsakenness that ended. The curse was finished (R.C. Sproul).

Friends: Behold the Lamb.

Labels: Atonement, Death of Christ, Gospel, Grace

When Paul adds in Philippians 2:8 that our Lord's death was "even the death of the cross", he was not simply adding an inconsequential historical piece of trivia; he was adding a detail with huge redemptive significance. In my message Sunday I highlighted the fact that the Bible goes out of its way to tell us, not only that Jesus died, but also the manner and place in which he died: on a cross.

Check out all the following texts and you'll discover that God is emphatic in telling us that the death of His Son was a public on-a-tree, up-in-the-air, for-all-eyes-to-see spectacle (Acts 5:30; 1 Peter 2:2; John 3:14; Psalm 22:16, 17; Zechariah 12:10; Romans 3:24, 25) . The Romans text actually uses a word (translated put forward in verse 25) which means to "set forth publicly" (TDNT). The NASB translates it "displayed publicly".

As I said Sunday, this public spectacle aspect of the death of Christ has redemptive relevance. That Christ did not die in secret or in an unseen and unknown place is essential to the meaning of his death. Both Deuteronomy 21:22, 23 and Galatians 3:10-14 make this clear. Both these texts reveal that His death on a tree (i.e.-on a cross) was meant to display that His death was an act of God in cursing human sin. Public hanging in execution was different from other executions like stoning. Those who were hung, were cursed of God (Deut. 21:22, 23).

This means that Christ became a curse--indeed the cursed of God--for us. I return to this even though I preached it just this past Sunday, because I want all who heard (and those who didn't) not to forget. Please consider this friends: God the Father and Son agreed that to redeem those loved by God, the Son would bear the curse of God for their sins.

We may find the language shocking and may even recoil as if it somehow overstates the matter, but it is accurate to say that on the cross, God damned Himself in His Incarnate Son so that He might be able to save His elect. These texts go out of their way to teach just that, and nothing less.

Tomorrow I'll give you a couple of quotes along these lines. For today, let's just ponder the matter ourselves. Those who deny or disdain the atoning and penal aspects of the cross (that is, those who deny that Jesus was actually bearing the penalty and punishment for human sin to appease the holy and just wrath of God over that sin) are not merely overlooking an irrelevant side-bar to the cross. They are missing the whole point.

Atonement, the propitiation of a holy and justly angry God, the substitution of a sinless Lamb for a sinful people; all this is the very heart and essence of the gospel. Take these away and we have nothing left. Keep these and we have everything.

O let us weep, and wonder, and be humbled, and be still and quiet at the foot of the Cross. Then let us sing and dance for joy.

Labels: Atonement, God's Love, Gospel, Grace

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
(Numbers 6:24-26)
GOBL Living is not a typo. It's my Bible margin shorthand for God-Blessed. This year in my reading through the Bible I've noted all the times God's blessing is mentioned. This morning I completed Numbers 6, so far finding 40 references to the blessing of God. I'm not counting other synonyms like God's favor. That would add in another 2-3 dozen allusions to the kind, joy-giving, gracious acts of God in behalf of those He loves.

And I'm still only in Numbers. I haven't even begun the happy parts of the Old Testament, and am not even near the NT yet! I'm getting the distinct impression that the Bible is about a God who loves to bless his people. That means He loves to give gifts that bring joy and a deep inner sense of wholeness and fullness to human hearts.

Maybe this is because He Himself is the Happy God--the One most blessed and full of joy (Romans 1:25; Romans 9:5; 2 Corinthians 11:31; 1 Timothy 1:11; 1 Timothy 6:15). All told I think I recall there being over 90 references to the happiness of God in the Bible (check out John Piper's The Pleasures of God, at desiringgod.org for an incredible study of this truth).

Because God is happy--the blessed One--He loves to bring joy to those He loves. Blessing to us is the overflow of the blessedness of His own heart. In Numbers 6, Aaron asks God, in the famous Aaronic Benediction, to shine His blessed and blessing face upon us. And that's what He always does.

Notwithstanding recent trials; notwithstanding pipes busted and bank accounts pillaged and nest eggs depleted and jobs lost and cancer diagnosed and marriages ravaged and kids wayward and sons gone, The Blessed God is blessing His children.

It is so hard to see it in the middle of the storm, in the throes of the calamity, in the pit of grief--but God is always moving about seeking to bless those He loves (2 Chronicles 16:9). And this is true even in the tears. Often God's sweetest blessing comes while we're in the agonizing grip of soul-draining, gut-wrenching grief. Whenever God breaks the heart it is to bless the soul.

That is not cliche. It is truth, and there are no exceptions to this rule. It is truth tried and proven by countless believers through the years; truth being proven by those in trial this very hour. While I have seen much suffering in recent days, I have also seen at least glimmers of hope, little flickers of faith and whispers of blessing in even the most grief-stricken among us. This is the faithfulness of a blessed God Who blesses us.

Dear suffering friend: God is going to meet you in this hour. He is going to lift your eyes. He is going to restore your soul. He is going to bless you with moments in which you see and know and love, and know that you are loved by, Him.

His blessed face will shine on you today. May you know with joy that it does.

Labels: Blessing, Grace