Archive for July, 2007
The Gospel For Real Life: Chapter 8
July 17, 2007 10:16 am
I’m not sure if Justin Carter is a real person, but his story is a great picture of reconciliation.
Reconciliation, by definition, assumes a previous state of alienation and hostility caused by the offensive actions of one or both parties.
When Paul described us as God’s enemies, he was not at that point describing our sinful hatred of God, but rather His righteous hatred of us because of our sin.
A total reconciliation demands a total effort by the offending party to make amends… God did not wait for a change of heart on our part. He did all that was necessary to secure our reconciliation, including our change of heart.
When Jesus satisfied the justice of God and propitiated the wrath of God, He did all that was required to remove the enmity of God toward us. By His death He bridged the vast gulf of divine alientation between us and objectively restored us to a position of friendship and favor with God.
Think about what this means. We ourselves should have been on our faces before God, imploring Him to be reconciled to us. Instead, we see God reconciling us to Himself through the death of His Son, and then appealing to us to receive that reconciliation. What a pure act of grace and mercy on God’s part!
Happily for us, our reconciliation to God is permanent and eternal.
This is indeed amazing. Here’s the story so far: Jesus Christ
- Perfectly obeyed the Law of God (substitution)
- Satisfied the justice of God (sacrifice)
- Exhausted the wrath of God (propitiation)
- Removed our sins from the presence of God (expiation)
- Redeemed us from the curse of God (redemption)
- Reconciled us to God (reconciliation)
Quesitons for discussion:
- As you think back over what you’ve read so far in this book, what picture of God emerges? What’s He like? What’s important to Him?
- God has committed to us the message of reconciliation to us. Who helped you become reconciled to God? Whom have you helped?
On Vacation
7:15 amThe Gospel For Real Life: Chapter 7
July 14, 2007 11:38 amBridges begins this chapter with the harrowing and tragic story of the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. The story is relevant to this chapter because kidnappings are often followed by demands for ransom. The two words go together for us. But it used to be that a ransom was paid to deliver anyone from any kind of captivity or slavery. The word ransom is related to the word redeem:
To redeem is to buy back or secure the release of someone from slavery or from captivity by the payment of a ransom. Redemption, then, is the action to secure release; the ransom is the price paid to effect the action. It is also true, however, that ransom may be used as a verb, meaning the same thing as to redeem.
How did Christ redeem us? Paul explains in Galatians 3:13:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Maybe you didn’t realize that the law brought a curse…
Mankind was under a curse because we had not perfectly obyed the Law of God—either in Adam or as individuals. The curse falls on everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.
The old Ivory soap slogan, “99 44/100 pure” apparently denotes quite an accomplishment in the manufacture of soap, but such a percentage is not good enough to satisfy the Law of God. Rather it pronounces a curse on the least failure to do everything written in it.
When we think that the Law of God is too rigorous or its curse too severe, it is because we don’t understand God or the nature of sin. God is transcendent in His majesty and sovereign in His authority. Every sin, be it ever so small in our eyes, is an assault on that authority. In effect we are saying, “I don’t care what You say. I will do as I please this time.” Furthermore, each sin is an insult to His character. It’s as if we are saying to God, “I don’t want to be like You.”
The primary purpose of the Law, however, is not to curse us but to lead us to Christ (see Galatians 3:24). Christ became a curse for us. Literally, He became a curse in our place as our substitute.
If that isn’t amazing enough, he goes on:
Knowing that Christ paid our ransom price, you might now wonder to whom the ransom was paid. The obvious answer to the question is that the ransom was paid to God acting in His capacity as Judge.
God both demanded the ransom price and paid it in the death of His Son. Jesus was both the redeemer and the ransom as He laid down His life in our place.
There are many blessings to this redemption as we are redeemed from our former way of life. Here are some questions to discuss:
- Why isn’t a little bit of disobedience something God can just accept without cursing us?
- What would you say to someone who says, “I don’t agree with all this talk about rules and obedience to the Law of God. The God I believe in isn’t obsessed with rules like that.”
- In Romans 5:10, Paul writes that God hates sin and regards sinners as enemies. Why does simply wanting to live your own life your way make you an enemy of God? Why can’t you be neutral toward God?
40 Days To Go
July 13, 2007 10:10 am
Thursday Thoughts For Parents: 07/12/07
July 12, 2007 1:45 pmThe Gospel For Real Life: Chapter 6
July 11, 2007 9:38 pmIn this chapter, Jerry Bridges explains an important theological idea that we don’t talk a lot about: the scapegoat.
A scapegoat is one who is made to bear the blame for the actions of others, or for events he did not cause… The greatest scapegoat in all of history, however, is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as the Israelites’ sins were symbolically carried away by the scapegoat, so our sins have been literally carried away by our Lord Jesus Christ.
The question we must ask ourselves is, do we believe this? Do we believe the testimony of Scripture, or do we believe our guilty feelings? Only to the extent we believe God has indeed put our sins behind his back will we be motivated and enabled to effectively deal with those sins in our daily lives.
He explains what this means through a friend’s experience:
Because of a teenage prank, my friend was convicted of a felony, but received what is called a Queen’s pardon. Years later, when he was routinely investigated for past criminal activity, the response came back, “We have no record of this person.” His record has not just been marked “pardoned,” it has been completely removed from the file and destroyed. It’s as if my friend had never been convicted. There is no permanent legal stain hanging over his head. There is no chance that the offense will ever arise to haunt him in the future.
This is what God has done for us. He has blotted out our sins, removing them from His record. He has done more than wipe the slate clean. he has thrown away the slate!
There are some great sections in this chapter about propitiation, penitence and faith, cleansing the conscience, and expiation. I loved the different pictures Bridges explains about forgiveness:
- carrying away sin
- removing sin as far as the east is from the west
- putting sin behind his back
- blotting sin from his record
- choosing to remember sin no more
- casting sin into the depths of the sea
Here are some questions for you to consider:
- Which of the above metaphors about forgiveness is most meaningful to you?
- On page 60, Bridges says, “Only to the extent we believe God has indeed put our sins behind His back will we be motivated and enabled to effectively deal with those sins in our daily lives.” Why is this the case? Do you believe God has put your sins behind his back? Why or why not?
Six Flags
July 9, 2007 7:50 pm
What did y’all think of Six Flags? Where to next year? Back to Six Flags? Kings Dominion? Busch Gardens? Hershey?
Let me know what you think…
I Am The Wayor Of Stuwidsville
July 7, 2007 3:19 pm
Let’s just put like this: what kind of idiot pastor, scheduled to officiate a wedding at 11am, has his upper lip numbed beyond all recognition for a couple fillings at 7:30am?
In case you haven’t figured it out, I am the punchline to this joke. Having a numb upper lip yesterday morning made it very difficult for me to pronounce any letters that require both lips to work together: Bs, Ps, Fs, Ms. Kind of like The Princess Bride, but maybe not quite that bad. The massive real estate that God has given me for lips didn’t make things any easier. I had to really concentrate to keep my letters from coming out like Ws: “You way kiss your wide.” “I now wonounce you huswand and wife.” I was really sweating it, wraying that God would give me my lip wack.
The dentist assured we it wouldn’t be a wroblem: “This stuff has a half-life of 23 minutes!” Sure enough, my uwwer lip reached full mowility about 20 winutes before the wedding was suwwosed to start. What a relief.
I share this with you wecause it is woth humwling and huwurous. I hope you’re laughing as hard as I am.
A Chronological Oddity
July 6, 2007 4:43 pmfive15 BIG MEETING on Saturday
July 5, 2007 10:01 amDon’t forget our five15 BIG MEETING on Saturday. These meeting will be a little different: we will have worship as usual and then split up. Students will head out for fun and games and I’ll take the parents to talk about plans for the year to come. So bring your soccer and volleyballs and frisbees and whatever else you like to play with.
Pizza and Ping-Pong at 5:15.
Meeting starts at 6:30.
