FreeTruth

Three years ago I had the privilege of sitting alone with Tim's mother as she lay dying. There had been an all-night vigil with Tim and his siblings surrounding her, but at one point I found myself alone with her for a little while. I'll never forget it. I remember holding her hand, studying it, remembering all that she had done to serve me. Then my thoughts went to Tim. She had fed him, clothed him, comforted him, disciplined him, held a book to read to him, held his hand in hers, held him in worship, and prayed for him with those hands. Hers were wonderfully beautiful hands.

Hands. They are an important part of us. There is no other part of our body that can grasp something as securely and for as long as the hands.

Isn't it wonderful that Jesus uses this image to convey His and the Father's everlasting loving care of us?

This isn't poetry. The last words Jesus spoke as He was dying on the cross were, "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit." Jesus, too, was in need of the Father's hands. A split second after breathing out his last words Jesus experienced the full wrath of God. He knew what He was in for. He knew it was all up to God the Father from that point on. As he willingly submitted to the Father he confidently placed His life in the Father's hands.

And now He sits at the Father's right hand.

What are your fears? What keeps you awake at night? What do you find yourself worrying about? What would it take to make you be completely worry-free? How secure is secure for you? How could you know for certain that you are protected from danger, disease and death? Would hiring a personal physician and health guru help?

What about your home, your family, your "things"? Are they safe? Would you think it enough protection if you owned a guard dog? Or would installing a "Broad View Home Security System" give you peace? Or would you not feel safe until you built a fully stocked underground bunker, (just as the President would use in case of disaster - surely if it's good enough for the president than surely it should be good enough for you).

In John 10:29 Jesus tell us we are safe in the hands of the Father. Sounds nice, but how can we know for sure?

We can know for sure because, "He that secured the glory of the Redeemer will secure the glory of the redeemed." (Matthew Henry). If it was true for Jesus it is true for us.

"Nothing - nothing shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:34). Because Jesus committed His Spirit into the Father's hands, and because Jesus now sits at the Father's right hand, we can be confident that we, too, are safe in the Father's Hands. It doesn't get any better, or safer, or more secure than that.

by Gayline Shorey

Labels: death, eternal security, Guest Post, Lent, The Love of God

If you know the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion of Christ, especially as found in Matthew, a number of verses from Psalm 22 will sound strikingly familiar. The very first verse--"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"--was quoted by Jesus as he hung on the cross (Matt. 27:46). Verses 7 and 8 foreshadow the taunting by the chief priests and others (Matt. 27:39 ff.). Obviously these are unmistakable prophetic words.

There are others: the description of the soldiers gambling for Christ's clothing in verse 18 (see Matt. 27:35), and even the imagery in verses 14 and 15, which could easily apply to a thirsty Jesus hanging in agony with his weakened shoulders dislocated from bearing his weight--all these details bring to mind the picture of Christ in the six hours on that day we call Good Friday. What is amazing is that the psalm was written in about 1000 B.C., hundreds of years before the Romans would invent crucifixion!

Referring to this psalm, the ESV Study Bible has this to say:

(I)n view of its prominent place in the crucifixion story, Christian readers have found in it a description of the sufferings of Jesus. Many Christians have taken it as a straight prediction of Jesus' sufferings, as if the primary function of the psalm was to foretell the work of the Savior; others have read it as a lament in its OT context, with a "fuller meaning" revealed by Jesus' use of it. It is better to see the psalm as providing a lament for the innocent sufferer, and then to see how all the Gospels use this to portray Jesus as the innocent sufferer par excellence.

Regardless of how we approach the question of interpretation, the point is that there is something going on here that mere "coincidence" cannot explain. As believers in Christ, we can take from this a few things:

1. The Word of God is utterly dependable. It spoke prophetically of the crucifixion a millennium before God the Son would assume a physical body and undergo the agony of the cross. Therefore, it is just as dependable when it comes to prophetic words that have yet to be realized. The description of the return of the Lord in 1 Thessalonians 4 would be but one example. Jesus Christ is coming again.

2. When we suffer, we can know that God is "in it" for our good. He was most certainly in the sufferings of Jesus, and he is in our sufferings as well. He intends to work in them for our good.

3. Christ died for us as our Older Brother. There is another statement that is quoted, not in the Gospels, but in Hebrews. Psalm 22:22 ("I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.") appears in Hebrews 2:12, and that quotation comes on the heels of these words: "That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers." So we can know that Christ's becoming our older brother was never far from his mind, even as he hung dying for us. Understanding that, we can rejoice in the exclamation of verse 26: "May your hearts live forever!"

by Tim Bowditch

Labels: Atonement, Cross Centered Living, Death of Christ, Guest Post, prophecy fulfilled, The Love of God

As I posted yesterday, in response to my message on Sunday from Philippians 3:19, 20 in which I called upon the church to have a heart for all those "many whose end is destruction" I received three questions via email; questions which were preceded by a tender expression of gratitude for the message and concern for the lost.

I answered one question yesterday; now question two: "What do I do when doubt/unbelief springs forth, regarding God's inherent love and goodness?"

Does the reality of hell and the fact that many exist whose end is destruction call into question the love and goodness of God? Let's face it; that's a question we've all had at least at times. And when it comes to us it comes, not as a matter of casual curiosity, but as a burdensome grief and frightening doubt.

How can a loving God damn sinners? And why does it seem that so many of my best efforts to rescue sinners from hell fail so badly? Doesn't God care? Doesn't He see? Can't He do something? And if He can, why doesn't He?

First let me say that no blog post can suffice to answer this question. The answers are too deep, too wrapped up in mystery, too shrouded in the secret wonders of God's being to be revealed adequately in any blog (or anywhere else for that matter). But that said, let me offer a few thoughts as they come to me:
1. God does love sinners very much. He loves some sinners savingly and eternally--choosing them from before time, redeeming them in Christ, and regenerating, justifying, and adopting them through grace. If you have come to Christ and have escaped hell, it means that God loves you, a sinner, very, very much indeed.
2. God has a love of compassion for all sinners. As Ezekiel proclaims, He "takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked." He weeps over Jerusalem. He grieves over the sinners in hell. God is not a sadist.
3. God loves Himself and His own glory more than anything. I know this sounds strange to the modern ear, but it really is very reasonable, even essential; it couldn't be any other way.

Let me just put it like this: What is it when someone loves and worships anyone more than God? Idolatry. Only God is deserving of supreme love. If we give that love to anyone else we've worshiped another god; we've committed the sin of idolatry.

So what would God be guilty of if He loved someone else more than himself? Idolatry. It is wrong worship if we love anyone more than God; it would be no less so if God did.

The fact is that the Bible says over and over that God does all that He does for his own glory, honor, and eternal joy. And those who love God are delighted with this fact. They are never happier than when God is glorified for all He is worth! When God gets glory, those whom God loves very much get joy! Now this truth that God loves himself and His own glory leads us to another truth...

4. God sometimes gets glory out of events that do not give Him joy. I need only remind you of the cross. God took no personal sadistic pleasure in the death of His Son, but in the brutality of Calvary God willed an event that simultaneously He grieved, that He might accomplish an end He designed: His own glory through the eternal salvation of those He loves to be with Him and to enjoy Him forever.

5. In a similar way God has resolved that some exist whose end is destruction (an end He grieves) because in ways we cannot fully grasp, it will rebound to His glory and to our joy in his glory.

Somehow God will get glory through the destiny of the wicked. I know that this is hard truth, but friends: it is truth. And in the end it is truth--even hard truth--that sets us free; free from sorrow, free from confusion, free from doubts, free from despair.

Friends, I do not mean to answer a deep grieving question of the heart with theological abstractions, and I'm really not. These--at least for me--are the truths that glue my world and life view together. God is up to things mysterious and deep and shrouded in wonder.

His ways and thoughts are higher than mine--higher than the heavens are above the earth. I cannot fathom His mind or comprehend His plans. I cannot trace His footsteps in the sands of time for they lead to places and plans I simply have no category for. I only know that He is God, that He is love, that He is committed to doing all that is right and all that will result in His highest praise and our highest pleasure in that praise.

Somehow, even the death of the wicked and their end that is destruction, is a part of that wonder and praise. Beyond that I cannot go. Instead, with Job I have learned to place my hand over my mouth and be silent in humble trust. Just like when I tell my kids and grand-kids to trust me in what they cannot understand, God does the same.

As the hymn puts it: "whatever my God ordains is right."

The Judge of all the earth will do both what is just, and what is good. O that we all may rest in this; may we rest in Him.

Labels: Doubt, The Love of God