FreeTruth

I have long found this saying of Christ from the cross both tender and profound in its intent. Two great realities are captured in our Lord's words to his mom and to John.

First, His words exemplify tender love. Here is a son in the midst of woes and sorrows beyond expression. He is surely at a moment in which it might be understandable for him to be a bit self-focused and self-attentive. But he is not. In this moment of profound pain and suffering, Jesus is still concerned about others; in this case his mom.

She was about to be both a grieving widow (Joseph appears to have died much earlier) and a bereaved mom. Who would take care of her? Who would be her caring son (remember, to this point Jesus' brothers did not believe, leaving Mary desperately alone and in need of immediate care). Who better to care for her than John, the Lord's best friend? So Jesus provides a model here of tender care and devoted sonship.

Second, His words ensure our salvation. This one may surprise you. How do Jesus' words ensure our salvation? In this way. By making sure to care and provide for His mom at his death, Jesus was keeping the fifth commandment--to honor father and mother. This was not just a tender act of love, it was an obedient act to God.

And that matters. It matters because the sacrifice for our sins had to be perfectly obedient to God in every way. He could not leave any command imperfectly obeyed for he had to be a Lamb without moral spot or blemish. Had Jesus failed to provide for his mother and honor her even in his death, he would have failed to be perfectlty conformed to the Law of God, and therefore would have been disqualified to be a perfect sacrifice for our sins!

Yes--our salvation depended on these words and the perfect love and honor for parents that they express. Are you not glad he did this? If he hadn't, his death would have been in vain, and we'd be without a Savior still.

Thank you Jesus for loving and honoring your parents right up to the end. Because you did, I have both an example to follow and a Savior to trust. Amen.

Labels: Gospel, Guest Post, Lent, The Work of Christ

"He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief..."

I recall sitting on my college bunk one evening in complete darkness, listening to this text as arranged by Handel in his musical masterpiece, Messiah. I was deeply moved that evening and I think the experience led me to a new awareness of our Lord's sufferings. There is something about the image of Christ as "a man of sorrows" that has always drawn me. It's how I most often look at him.

To truly understand this world is to be in significant measure, "a man of sorrows." Of course, no one understood life, reality, and eternity the way Jesus did. He knew the joys of heaven and the bliss of unhindered fellowship with the Father. He knew what a world without sin would look like, and just how much had been lost in the Garden. And he left heaven, to remedy the mess.

Our text for today tells us this sorrowful man was also despised and rejected by men. What an irony! Jesus was rejected by those for whom love had driven him to be "acquainted with grief." Loving the sinner is a sorrowful proposition! Were it not for his great love, he would not be that "man of sorrows." Sorrow is a function of love. Ask the parent of a wayward child--the greater the love, the greater the sorrow.

But recall, Our Lord was also "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows." Another irony—the saddest man on earth is also the most joyful! Love and joy led Jesus to submit to the sufferings of the cross. "Who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross..."

Brothers and sisters, what a Savior!

Today, as we meditate on these words of scripture, we must understand that it was love for us that made Jesus the "man of sorrows." It was love for us that caused him to become that marred and disfigured man on the road to Calvary. Hear the words of the hymn writer, Philip Bliss:

Man of Sorrows, what a name
For the Son of God who came,
Ruined sinners to reclaim;
Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Labels: Cross Centered Living, Death of Christ, Gospel, Guest Post, The Work of Christ

In Genesis 3:15 remarkable words are spoken at the dawn of time. This is the first Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter text all rolled into one.

By all appearances in that moment Satan had won. The power of hell appeared to have mutinied successfully against heaven, while taking the human race with him. He'd seduced Adam and Eve, and effectively gotten them banished from Eden.

But in Genesis 3:15 God gives a promise spelling the Devil's demise, which simultaneously sustained believers' hopes for millennia--all the way through the moment when it was fulfilled in the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus. The promise is called in theology: "The Proto-Evangelium": the first gospel. It is the first heralding of a Saving Redeemer to come.

But this is also the first announcement that the Savior would suffer. Satan would attack the woman's offspring so fiercely that he would succeed in "bruising" or crushing His heel, speaking of a crippling, near mortal wound against Eve's seed. A child born to woman would experience a severe wound that would appear to spell ultimate defeat.

But in the end the Child would bruise or crush Satan's head! Here is a promise that a Child would be born that would experience apparent defeat only to turn around and gain ultimate triumph. That does sound familiar, now doesn't it?

Thousands of years later a Child was born to a woman; one who would redeem His people from Satan's grasp and hell's dominion. This Child would appear to be defeated on a cross, but then would triumph through the empty tomb. Satan would crush His heel; He would crush Satan's head. He came to destroy the devil and death, and that's exactly what He did (Hebrews 2:14, 15).

Friends, this text shows us that the sufferings of Christ came as no surprise to our Lord. Long before they happened He knew they would happen. He knew what would befall Him, and He didn't flinch.

History is not a story of a God surprised by human choices or sins. Jesus did not--as some have suggested--come to earth expecting a warm welcome only to be rejected. Rather, history is the unfolding of an eternal plan of God in which He Himself would come, knowing He would endure infinite unspeakable sorrow, that He might redeem us from eternal unspeakable sorrow. He knew His heel would be crushed, but He stepped into time and space to endure it all nonetheless.

Calvary was not an afterthought; it was the plan. It was not a mistake; it was exactly what God had in mind. And because it was, we have a Savior.

Labels: Atonement, Cross Centered Living, Death of Christ, Gospel, Lent, The Work of Christ

About a week after the first Christmas night, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple. You can read about this in Luke 2:22-40.

This temple visit of the 8 day old Jesus is significant for a number of reasons. Among them is that by being brought to the temple and submitting to this ceremony of dedication, Jesus was beginning a life of active obedience to the Law of God (Luke 2:22-27. At eight days old Jesus was conforming to the Law of God blamelessly. That matters. But why?

It matters because this means that from His earliest days Jesus was putting into practice the perfect righteous obedience to God's Law that would later be imputed or reckoned or credited to our account upon our faith in Him.

In order to live in God's favor and presence, we need to have a perfect Law-keeping record (Leviticus 18:5; Galatians 3:12), which in ourselves, we don't. We are Law-breakers, not just by our failure to keep ceremonial laws but in our repeated wilful failures to keep the absolute moral laws of God. We choose to disobey God time and again. And God cannot condone, nor can He tolerate the presence of sin before His eyes.

This is why all works-based religions are exercises in futility. No matter how hard we try to get it right, we don't. Even if I got it right perfectly from this day onward, it would not remedy my bad record in the past. When it comes to saving myself through works it is a classic case of "I can't get there from here."

Enter the Incarnate Son of God. He comes to earth and starts living life on this fallen planet; only He lives it differently than everyone else. He gets it right--right down to ceremonies performed on Him and to Him when He's 8 days old. And by doing so throughout His life He attained a perfect record of righteousness.

This righteousness would later be offered to all who would believe in Him as Savior and Lord. God promises that the righteousness of Christ becomes ours by faith, so that we might live before Him forever (Romans 4:5; Romans 5:17-21).

Thank God for our Lord's 8 day old visit to the temple. If we see things rightly, we know that even then He was saving us by His obedient perfect life, an obedience one day to be counted as ours.

Amen.

Labels: Gospel, Justification, The Work of Christ

I don't/won't do this often since my devotional time with the Lord is a pretty private thing I enjoy without feeling any need or desire to share, but something tells me that God's going to tell me something that I can let you eavesdrop on.

I've just set my Bible down, having completed a reading of Exodus 40 and the first ten chapters of Leviticus. I noticed something in this reading on which I want to meditate, so I want to get down some of my thoughts about it. I'm going to let you in on the process. This is going on right now, my devotional thoughts streaming live to you.

Father, here's what I notice in your Word to me this morning. In Exodus 40:34-38 you tell me about the tent of meeting--symbollic of the place where You dwell, which I know You say in Hebrews is ultimately Heaven--the True Tent of Meeting. I read here of Your glory filling the tent and then abiding withYour people.

Thank you Father for dwelling with us in this life and then allowing us to dwell with You forever in Your everlasting Home. And thank you for glory, Your glory, Your majesty and power and majestic sweetness with which You fill our hearts and lives. Thank You for times when I just know that I know that I know that You are God and that you are great and that you are good.

Now Lord, I notice something in my reading. Leviticus 1:1, 2 are not just the very next words in the Bible--after Exodus 40. When I read them I sense that they are the very next words in the storyline of the Bible. I mean, the last paragraph of Exodus and the first words of Leviticus connect. Exodus concludes with this description of the tent of meeting and the glory that fills it, and then--and this is the thing that grabs my heart--Leviticus begins with Your voice coming from the tent of meeting telling Your people the way (and the only way) to come near that tent.

And for ten long blood-saturated, death-filled chapters You lay out laws about sacrifices and priests. Put differently: You tell Your people that as much as they might want to approach You and Your tent, they'd better do it in the right way (with a sacrifice to cover their sins), or they will not be able to do it at all. In fact, Levitcus 10:1-7 reveals that if people approach wrongly, they die.

The way you say to come is one filled with blood and death. You command sacrifices and blood--daily offered and ceaselessy atoning. I see that you require payment for all sins--even those I do unintentionally. I see that the God of glory cannot be approached by sinners without a sacrifice--an atoning, God's-wrath-appeasing sacrifice offered in death. Sin must be paid for before God may be approached.

Here's what I hear you saying my Lord: "Tim, you and all sinners have offended me by your sins. I am holy, and you, Tim, are not. If you want to come near to Me and see My glory, your sin must be covered. If your really want to enjoy My presence, you have to draw near with a sacrifice that says that you know you're a sinner and you know that your sins deserve death. If you come without a sacrifice offered in death, you will not be able to see My glory."

I see it Father. You are reminding me of Jesus here, and the sacrifice He has offered for my sins so I can enter Your presence and see Your glory. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the blood of Jesus that cleanses me from all sin. Thank you Father and Son for providing the one sacrifice that covers my sins once and for all.

Thank You that the payment has been made and the way is open. Thank You that I can now approach You, anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances, because no matter where I am or what is happening I have a High Priest in the True Tent of Meeting (Heaven, which is Yor House) whose nail-scarred hands and feet remind You of the sacrifice once given for me. I'm never barred from Your presence because I'm always covered by His blood.

And thank you that I do not have to do Leviticus 1-10 any more. Well, I guess I really do. I still can only come if my sins are atoned for. Only I get to do it every day by pleading Jesus, not by carrying an animal, slicing its neck, and bloodying my hands.

Thank You that Your hands were bloodied for me.
I love you Lord. I love You Jesus for making the way.
Amen.


Friends, I've interrupted our conversation about shift and change to let you eavesdrop on my time with God, and to be reminded of at least one thing that wonderfully, doesn't ever change; the work of Christ. Now I'm going to go sing.

Labels: Gospel, The Work of Christ

Labels: The Work of Christ