The Cross of Christ - Chapter 13 (Part 2)

As John Stott nears the end of his book, The Cross of Christ, he looks into the relationship between Christ's sufferings and the sufferings of those spiritually united to Him through faith in His substitutionary work on the cross on their behalf. Below are the first of several connections he finds revealed in Scripture.
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     "Suffering and Glory" (Part 2)

Patience

First, the cross of Christ is a stimulus to patient endurance. Even though suffering has to be recognized as evil and therefore resisted, there nevertheless comes a time when it has to be realistically accepted. It is then that the example of Jesus, which is set before us in the New Testament for our imitation, becomes an inspiration.(1Pet.2:18-23) ... We need to 'fix our eyes on Jesus', for he 'endured the cross, scorning its shame'. So then: 'Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart' (Heb.12:1-3).

Mature Holiness

Secondly, the cross of Christ is the path to mature holiness. We need to consider the implications of two rather neglected verses in the letter to the Hebrews:

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God ... should make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering. ( Heb.2:10)

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Heb.5:8-9; cf. Heb.7:28)

Not of course that he was ever imperfect in the sense that he had done wrong ... rather that he needed further experiences and opportunities in order to become teleios, 'mature' [perfected]. In particular, 'he learned obedience from what he suffered'. He was never disobedient. But his sufferings were the testing-ground in which his obedience became full-grown.

James uses the same language of 'perfection' or 'maturity' in relation to Christians. Just as suffering led to maturity through obedience for Christ, so it leads to maturity through perseverance for us (James 1:2-4; cf. Rom.5:3-5). ...Three graphic images are developed in Scripture to illustrate ... the father disciplining his children (Deut.8:5; Prov.3:11-12), the metalworker refining silver and gold (Ps.66:10; Isa.48:10; 1Pet.1:6-7), and the gardener pruning his vine (Jn.15:1-2). ...Not that suffering (which is an evil) is the cause of growth; but it is the occasion.

Suffering Service
Thirdly, the cross of Christ is the symbol of suffering service. We are familiar with the ...'Servant Songs' of Isaiah. ...We see this clearly in Jesus, who is the suffering servant par excellence, but we need to remember that the servant's mission to bring light to the nations is also to be fulfilled by the church (Acts 13:47). For the church, therefore, as for the Savior, suffering and service go together.

The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless an ear of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates [i.e. does not prefer, value] his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me..." (Jn.12:23-26)

Paul is the most notable example of this principle (Eph.3:1, 13; Col.1:24; 2Tim.2:8-10). Paul states in all three texts that his sufferings are being endured 'for the sake of you Gentiles', 'for the sake of Christ's body' or 'for the sake of the elect'.  The place of suffering in service and of passion in mission is hardly ever taught today. But the greatest single secret of evangelistic or missionary effectiveness is the willingness to suffer and die. It may be a death to popularity (by faithfully preaching the unpopular biblical gospel) , or to pride (by the use of modest methods in reliance on the Holy Spirit), or to national prejudice (by identification with another culture), or to material comfort (by adopting a simple lifestyle). But the servant must suffer if he is to bring light to the nations, and the seed must die if it is to multiply.

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 13 (Part 1)

In Chapter 13 of The Cross of Christ, Stott writes, "The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair. Sensitive spirits ask if it can possibly be reconciled with God's justice and love. ...Suffering comes in many unwelcome forms, and sometimes we not only ask God our agonized questions 'Why?' and 'Why me?' but even like Job rage against him, accusing him of injustice and indifference."

He further points out, "the Bible supplies no thorough solution to the problem of evil, whether 'natural' evil or 'moral', that is, whether in the form of suffering or of sin. Its purpose is more practical than philosophical. Consequently, although there are references to sin and suffering on virtually every page, its concern is not to explain their origin but to help us to overcome them. My object in this chapter is to explore what relation there might be between the cross of Christ and our sufferings." In this first look at Chapter 13 are Stott's overview of general biblical considerations concerning suffering.

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"Suffering and Glory"

First, according to the Bible suffering is an alien intrusion into God's good world, and will have no part in his new universe. It is a Satanic and destructive onslaught against the Creator. The Book of Job makes that clear. So do Jesus' description of an infirm woman as 'bound by Satan' (Lk.13:16), his 'rebuking' of disease as he rebuked demons (Lk.4:35, 39), Paul's reference to his 'thorn in the flesh' as 'a messenger of Satan' (2Cor.12:7) and Peters portrayal of Jesus' ministry as 'healing all who were under the power of the devil' (Acts 10:38). So whatever may be said later about the 'good' which God can bring out of suffering, we must not forget that it is good out of evil. 

Secondly, suffering is often due to sin. Of course originally disease and death entered the world through sin. But I am now thinking of contemporary sin. Sometimes suffering is due to the sin of others, as when children suffer from unloving or irresponsible parents, the poor and hungry from economic injustice, refugees from the cruelties of war, and road casualties caused by drunken drivers. At other times suffering can be the consequence of our own sin (the reckless use of our freedom) and even its penalty. .. At the same time we must firmly repudiate the dreadful Hindu doctrine of karma which attributes all suffering to wrong-doing in this or a previous existence, and the almost equally dreadful doctrine of Job's so-called comforters. They trotted out their conventional orthodoxy that all personal suffering is due to personal sin, and one of the major purposes of the Book of Job is to contradict that popular but wrong-headed notion. Jesus categorically rejected it too. (Lk.13:1-5; Jn.9:1-3)

Thirdly, suffering is due to our human sensitivity to pain. Misfortune is made worse by the hurt (physical and emotional) which we feel. But the pain sensors of the central nervous system give valuable warning-signals, necessary for personal and social survival. ...Nerve reactions have to hurt if we are to protect ourselves.

Fourthly, suffering is due to the kind of environment in which God has placed us. ...natural disasters such as flood, hurricane, earthquake and drought. ...If we lived in a world in which God prevented every evil from happening, like Superman in Alexander Salkind's films, free and responsible activity would be impossible. Jesus spoke of suffering as being both 'for God's glory', that God's Son might be glorified through it, and 'so that the work of God might be displayed' (Jn.11:4, 9:3).

Next time we'll look at how Stott believes the cross speaks to us in our pain.

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 12

In Chapter 12 of The Cross of Christ, Stott writes, "To live under the cross means that every aspect of the Christian community's life is shaped and colored by it. The cross not only elicits our worship ... it also directs our conduct in relation to others, including our enemies. We are to 'be imitators of God ... as dearly loved children' and to 'live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us...' (Eph.5:1-2)  More than that, we are to exhibit in our relationships that combination of love and justice which characterized the wisdom of God in the cross."

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 "Loving Our Enemies"

If our peace-making is to be modeled on our heavenly Father's ... we shall conclude at once that it is quite different from appeasement. For the peace which God secures is never cheap peace, but always costly. ...we may have to bear the embarrassment of reproving or rebuking the other person, and thereby risk forfeiting his or her friendship. Although the followers of Jesus never have the right to refuse forgiveness, let alone take revenge, we are not permitted to cheapen forgiveness by offering it prematurely when there has been no repentance. 'If your brother sins,' Jesus said, 'rebuke him', and only then 'if he repents, forgive him.' (Luke 17:3)

The incentive to peace-making is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peace-making exhibits the love and justice - and so the pain - of the cross.

Turning from social relationships in general to family life in particular, Christian parents will want their attitude to their children to be marked by the cross. Love is the indispensable atmosphere within which children grow into emotional maturity. Yet this is not the soft, unprincipled love which spoils the children, but the 'holy love' which seeks their highest welfare, whatever the cost. Indeed, since the very concept of human fatherhood is derived from the eternal fatherhood of God (Eph.3:14-15), Christian parents will naturally model their love on his. Consequently, true parental love does not eliminate discipline, since 'the Lord disciplines those whom he loves'. Indeed, it is when God disciplines us that he is treating us as his sons and daughters. If he did not discipline us, it might show us to be his illegitimate, not his authentic, children (Heb.12:5-8)...

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. (Rom.13:1-5)...

God overcame our evil by justifying us only because he first condemned it in Christ, and by redeeming us only because he first paid the ransom-price. He did not overcome evil by refusing to punish it, but by accepting the punishment himself. At the cross human evil was both punished and overcome, and God's mercy and justice were both satisfied.

[Challies' review, Chapter 12]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 11

In his final section of The Cross of Christ, Stott examines the benefits available to those who are "Living Under the Cross." Chapter 10 looked at the believer's entry into "The Community of Celebration." Chapter 11 looks at the change that takes place in the believer's "Self-understanding and Self-Giving." Stott writes, "The cross revolutionizes our attitude to ourselves as well as to God."

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"Self-Understanding and Self-Giving"

By union with Christ, we have shared in his death and resurrection, and so have ourselves died to sin and risen to God; we must therefore constantly remember this fact and live a life consistent with it. (Rom.6:4, 11-14) William Tyndale expressed it in characteristically vivid terms at the end of his prologue to his work on Romans:

Remember that Christ made not this atonement that thou shouldest anger God again; neither died he for thy sins, that thou shouldest live still in them; neither cleansed he thee, that thou shouldest  return, as a swine, unto thine old puddle again; but that thou shouldest be a new creature, and live a new life after the will of God, and not of the flesh. (2Cor.5:17)

Granted this fundamental fact about all who are in Christ, namely that we have died and risen with him, so that our old life of sin, guilt and shame has been terminated and an entirely new life of holiness, forgiveness and freedom has begun, what is to be our attitude to our new self? Because our new self, though redeemed, is still fallen, a double attitude will be necessary, namely self-denial and self-affirmation, both illumined by the cross.

Self-denial

The invitation of Jesus is plain: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follw me' (Mk.8:34) ...'daily' (Lk.9:23). If anybody does not take his cross and follow him, he is not worthy of him and cannot be his disciple (Lk.9:25-26).

Every rebel condemned to crucifixion was compelled to carry his cross, or at least the patibulum (the cross beam), to the scene of his execution. ...To take up our cross, therefore, and follow Jesus, is 'to put oneself into the position of a condemned man on his way to execution. ...Our cross, then, is not an irritable husband or a cantankerous wife. It is instead the symbol of death to the self.

To deny ourselves is to behave towards ourselves as Peter did towards Jesus when he denied him three times. The verb is the same (aparneomai). He disowned him, repudiated him, turned his back on him. Self-denial is not denying to ourselves luxuries such as chocolates, cakes, cigarettes and cocktails (though it may include this); it is actually denying or disowning ourselves, renouncing our supposed right to go our own way. 'To deny oneself is ... to turn away from the idolatry of self-centeredness.' 

Paul must have been referring to the same thing when he wrote that those who belong to Christ 'have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires' (Gal.5:24). No picture could be more graphic than that: an actual taking of hammer and nails to fasten our slippery fallen nature to the cross and thus do it to death. The traditional word for this is 'mortification'; it is the sustained determination by the power of the Holy Spirit to 'put to death the misdeeds of the body', so that through this death we may live in fellowship with God.

Self-affirmation

The self we are to deny, disown and crucify is our fallen self, everything within us that is incompatible with Jesus Christ (hence his commands 'let him deny himself' and the 'let him follow me'). (Luke 9:23) True self-denial (the denial of our false, fallen self) is not the road to self-destruction but the road to self-discovery.

So then, whatever we are by creation we must affirm: our rationality, our sense of moral obligation, our sexuality, our family life, our gifts of aesthetic appreciation and artistic creativity, our stewardship of the fruitful earth, our hunger for love and experience of community, our awareness of the transcendent majesty of God, and our inbuilt urge to fall down and worship him.

Whatever we are by the Fall, however, we must deny or repudiate: our irrationality, our moral perversity, our blurring of sexual distinctives and lack of sexual self-control, the selfishness which spoils our family life, our fascination with the ugly, our lazy refusal to develop God's gifts,our pollution and spoliation of the environment, the anti-social tendencies with inhibit true community, our proud autonomy, and our idolatrous refusal to worship the living and true God. ...Christ came not to redeem this but to destroy it. So we must strenuously deny or repudiate it. ...Christians can no longer think of themselves only as 'created and fallen', but rather as 'created, fallen and redeemed'.

Self-sacrificial love

Neither self-denial (a repudiation of our sins) nor self-affirmation (an appreciation of God's gifts) is a dead end of self-absorption. On the contrary, both are means to self-sacrifice. Self-understanding should lead to self-giving. The community of the cross is essentially a community of self-giving love, expressed in the worship of God and in the service of others. ...With the love of God both revealed to us and indwelling us, we have a double, inescapable incentive to give ourselves in love to others.

...the choice between selfish ambition and sacrifice. Jesus' affirmation that 'the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve' was startlingly original. ...He calls us to follow. ...His new community is to be organized on a different principle and according to a different model - humble service.

...the choice between comfort and suffering. We...regard security as our birthright and 'safety first' as a prudent motto. ...Where are the Christians who are prepared to put service before security, compassion before comfort, hardship before ease? ...Insistence on security is incompatible with the way of the cross. What daring adventures the incarnation and the atonement were! What a breach of convention and decorum that Almighty God should renounce his privileges in order to take human flesh and bear human sin! Jesus had no security except in his Father. So to follow Jesus is always to accept at least a measure of uncertainty, danger and rejection for his sake.

[Challies' review of Chapter 11]

[Excerpts: Chapter 1]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 10

Stott enters the final section of The Cross of Christ by examining the benefits available to those who are "Living Under the Cross." Chapter 10 looks at the first advantage of being "in Christ" as a result of personal repentance and having trusted in God's work through Christ on the cross - becoming a member of "The Community of Celebration," i.e. the church, the body of Christ. 

"Jesus Christ 'gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good'. (Gal.2:20; Titus 2:14; Acts 2:40-42) Thus the very purpose of his self-giving on the cross was not just to save isolated individuals ... but to create a new community whose members would belong to him, love one another and eagerly serve the world." (2Cor.5:19-21; Rev.7:9)

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"The Community of Celebration"

Our reconciliation includes the concepts of 'access' and 'nearness', which are aspects of our dynamic knowledge of God or 'eternal life' (Jn.17:3).  This intimate relationship to God, which has replaced the old and painful estrangement, has several characteristics.

First, it is marked by boldness. 

The word the apostles loved to use for it is parresia, which means 'outspokenness, frankness, plainness of speech' both in our witness to the world and in our prayers to God. Through Christ we are now able to 'approach God with freedom (parresia) and confidence'. We have parresia because of Christ's high priesthood to come to God's 'throne of grace', and parresia by Christ's blood 'to enter the Most Holy Place' of God's very presence. (Eph.3:11-12; Heb.4:16, 10:19-22)  ... due entirely to Christ's merit, not ours.

The second characteristic of our new relationship with God is love.

Indeed, 'we love because he first loved us'.  Previously we were afraid of him. But now love has driven out fear. Love begets love. God's love in Christ, which has in one sense liberated us, in another hems us in, because it leaves us no alternative but to live the rest of our lives for him, in adoring and grateful service. (1Jn.4:18-19; 2Cor.5:14-15)

Joy is a third mark of those who have been redeemed by the cross.

When the Babylonian exiles returned to Jerusalem, their 'mouths were filled with laughter' and their 'tongues with songs of joy'. The old alienation and humiliation were over; God had rescued and restored them. They likened their exhilaration to the revelries of harvest: 'Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.' How much more should we rejoice in the Lord, who have been redeemed from a much more oppressive slavery? The early Christians could hardly contain themselves: they shared their meals together 'with unaffected joy'.  (Ps.126:1-6; Acts 2:46, agalliasis (translated 'gladness') means 'exultation')

Boldness, love and joy are not to be thought of as purely private and interior experiences, however; they are to distinguish our public worship. The brief time we spend together on the Lord's Day, far from being divorced from the rest of our life, is intended to bring it into sharp focus. Humbly (as sinners), yet boldly (as forgiven sinners), we press into God's presence, responding to his loving initiative with an answering love of our own. ...The Christian community is a community of celebration. ...Holiness is to mark the Christian celebration, for Christ's ultimate purpose through the cross is 'to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation' (Col.1:22).

The cross is not just a badge to identify us and the banner under which we march; it is also the compass that gives us our bearings in a disoriented world.

[Challies' review of Chapter 10]

[Excerpts: Chapter 1; Chapter 11]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 9

In this section of his book, The Cross of Christ, John Stott has been reviewing the achievements of the cross. Chapter 7 looked at "The Salvation of Sinners", Chapter 8 at "The Revelation of God" and this chapter explores "The Conquest of Evil." Understanding the magnitude and ramifications of Christ's victory in this area is crucial to Christian sanctification. These truths are for those who have repented of their sin against an infinitely holy God ("turned to God from sin") and placed their faith, their trust completely in Christ's work on the cross. Only by being spiritually united to Him, being "in Christ", can these four aspects of the
                                                      power of evil be broken.
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"The Conquest of Evil" 

At the cross Jesus disarmed and triumphed over the devil, and all the 'principalities and powers' at his command. (Col.2:15) ... The victory of Christians, therefore, consists of entering into the victory of Christ and of enjoying its benefits.

Though the devil has been defeated, he has not yet conceded defeat. Although he has been overthrown, he has not yet been eliminated. ... Already the kingdom of God has been inaugurated and is advancing; not yet has it been consummated. Already the new age (the age to come) has come, so that we have 'tasted... the powers of the coming age'; not yet has the old age completely passed away. Already we are God's sons and daughters, and no longer slaves; not yet have we entered 'the glorious freedom of the children of God'. (Heb.6:5; 1Jn.2:8; Rom.8:21)

The 'reason why the Son of God appeared was that he might "undo" or "do away with" the works of the devil'. (1Jn.3:8, literally) ... The four 'works of the devil' from which Christ frees us ... are the law, the flesh, the world and death.

First, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the law.
It comes to many people as a surprise that the law, God's good gift to his people, in itself 'holy, righteous and good', could ever become a tyrant which enslaves us. The reason is that the law condemns our disobedience and so brings us under its 'curse' or judgment. But Christ has redeemed us from the law's curse by becoming a curse for us.... The law no longer enslaves us by its condemnation. (Gal.3:13)

Secondly, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the flesh.
What Paul means by the 'flesh' (Greek sarx) is our fallen nature or unredeemed humanity, everything that we are by birth, inheritance and upbringing before Christ renewed us. Because our 'flesh' is our 'self' in Adam, its characteristic is self-centredness. ... Living this kind of life, we were 'enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures'. As Jesus himself said, 'everyone who sins is a slave to sin'. But he immediately added: 'if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed'. (Jn.8:34-36)  And freedom from our fallen nature and its selfishness comes through the cross. (Gal.5:19-21; Titus 3:3; Rom.6:6)

Thirdly, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of the world.
...the world is the means through which (Satan) exerts pressure upon us from without. (2Cor.4:4; 1Jn.5:19) The 'world' in this context means godless human society, whose hostility to the church is expressed now by open ridicule and persecution, now by subtle subversion, the infiltration of its values and standards. John declares outspokenly that love for the world and love for the Father are mutually exclusive. (1Jn.2:15)

It is when we believe in Jesus Christ that our values change. We no longer conform to the world's values, but find instead that we are being transformed by our renewed mind which grasps and approves the will of God. And nothing weans us from worldliness more than the cross of Christ. (Rom.12:1-2; Gal.6:14)

Fourthly, through Christ we are no longer under the tyranny of death.

Jesus Christ is able to set free even those who all their lives have been 'held in slavery by their fear of death'. This is because by his own death he has 'destroyed' (deprived of power) 'him who holds the power of death - that is the devil'. (Heb.2:14-15)

It is by dealing with sin that he has dealt with death. For sin is the 'sting' of death, the main reason why death is painful and poisonous. It is sin which causes death, and which after death will bring the judgment. Hence our fear of it. But Christ has died for our sins and taken them away... Now that we are forgiven, death can harm us no longer. (1 Cor.15:55-56)

What, then, should be the Christian's attitude to death? It is still an enemy, unnatural, unpleasant and undignified - in fact 'the last enemy to be destroyed'. Yet, it is a defeated enemy. Because Christ has taken away our sins, death has lot its power to harm and therefore to terrify. Jesus summed it up in one of his greatest affirmations: 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.' That is, Jesus is the resurrection of believers who die, and the life of believers who live. His promise to the former is 'you will live', meaning not just that you will survive, but that you will be resurrected. His promise to the latter is 'you will never die', meaning not that you will escape death, but that death will prove to be a trivial episode, a transition to fullness of life.

[Challies' review of Chapter 9]
[Excerpts: Chapter 1; Chapter 10]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 8

Last week, Stott introduced a new section outlining the achievements of the cross in his book, The Cross of Christ. The most obvious achievement, "The Salvation of Sinners," was presented in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 looks at another result, "The Revelation of God." Stott writes, "Just as human beings disclose their character in their actions, so God has shown himself to us in the death of his Son." In short, this chapter investigates the "way the cross was a word as well as a work." What has the cross of Christ revealed to us about God? Which of mankind's most frequently asked questions were answered at the cross?

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"The Revelation of God"

The Justice of God

Men and women of moral sensitivity have always been perplexed by the seeming injustice of God's providence. ... It is one of the recurring themes of the Wisdom Literature and dominates the book of Job. Why do the wicked flourish and the innocent suffer? ...

The Bible responds ... in two complementary ways, first by looking on to the final judgment and secondly (from the perspective of NT believers) by looking back to the decisive judgment which took place at the cross. As to the first, this was the standard OT answer to the problem, for example in Psalm 73. Evil people prosper. They are healthy and wealthy. In spite of their violence, their arrogance and their impudent defiance of God, they get away with it. ...The psalmist admits that by envying their freedom to sin and their immunity to suffering, he had almost turned away from God ... but then he 'understood their final destiny'. The place on which they stand so self-confidently is more slippery than they realize, and one day they will fall, ruined by the righteous judgment of God.

The second part ... is to declare that the judgment of God has already taken place at the cross. ... The reason for God's previous inaction in the face of sin was not moral indifference but personal forbearance until Christ should come and deal with it on the cross.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets [i.e. OT Scripture], even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;  for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  [Romans 3:21-26]

If God does not justly punish sin, he would be 'unjust to himself' ...He would cease to be God ... He would destroy himself by contradicting his divine character as righteous Lawgiver and Judge. ...And he has done this publicly ... in order not only to be just but also to be seen to be just. ...The cross demonstrates with equal vividness both his justice in judging sin and his mercy in justifying the sinner.

The Love of God

Personal tragedies, floods and earthquakes, accidents which cost hundreds of lives, hunger and poverty on a global scale ... disease and death, and the sum total of the misery of the centuries - how can these horrors be reconciled with a God of love? Why does God allow them?

Christianity offers no glib answers to these agonized questions. But it does offer evidence of God's love, just as historical and objective as the evidence which seems to deny it, in the light of which the world's calamities need to be viewed.

We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us... [1 John 3:16]

Most people would have no difficulty in telling us what they think love is... John would disagree with them, however. He dares to say that, apart from Christ and his cross, the world would never have known what true love is. Of course all human beings have experienced some degree and quality of love. But John is saying that only one act of pure love, unsullied by any taint of ulterior motive, has ever been performed in the history of the world, namely the self-giving of God in Christ on the cross for undeserving sinners. That is why, if we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in a dictionary, but at Calvary.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. [1 John 4:10]

John takes the propitiatory nature of the cross ... as the manifestation of God's love. Because we were sinners, we deserved to die under the righteous anger of God. But God sent his only Son, and in sending him came himself, to die that death and bear that wrath instead of us. It was an act of sheer, pure, unmerited love.

The Wisdom & Power of God

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."  [1 Corinthians 1:30-31]

 ...my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.  [1 Corinthians 2:4-5]

By human standards not many of them were wise or powerful. In fact God deliberately chose what the world regards as foolish and feeble people, in order to shame the wise and the strong; he chose even the lowly, the despised ... to nullify what exists. His goal in this was to exclude human boasting. Boasting was entirely out of place, because it was God who had united them to Christ, and Christ who had become their wisdom (revealing God to them) and their power (bringing them justification, holiness and the promise of final redemption). The gospel of the cross will never be a popular message, because it humbles the pride of our intellect and character. ... For the cross is God's way to satisfy his love and justice in the salvation of sinners. It therefore manifests his power, too, 'the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes' (Rom.1:16).

[Challies' review of Chapter 8]
[Selections from Chapter 1; Chapter 9]

Cross of Christ - Chapter 7 (Part Two)

In Chapter 7, Stott examines God's salvation of sinners by focusing upon four key terms which look at salvation from four different aspects, utilizing four different images: propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation. Much confusion arises when we don't have a clear understanding of how Scripture uses these terms. In Part One we looked at "propitiation" and "redemption". In this post we'll look at the other two terms. Keep Stott's warning in mind, that, "We must not deduce from this that to have understood the images is to have exhausted the meaning of the doctrine."

 [Mosaic from ancient Pompeii, featuring chance (Fortuna’s wheel), divine justice (right angle & plumb-bob) and mortality.]

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"The Salvation of Sinners" (Part Two)

Justification   [Eph.2:8-9; Gal.2:16; Titus 3:5]

The third image...will take us into the law court. For justification is the opposite of condemnation (Rom.5:18; 8:34), and both are verdicts of a judge who pronounces the accused either guilty or not guilty. ...Justification bestows on us a righteous standing before God. ...Justification (God declaring us righteous through his Son's death) is instantaneous and complete, admitting no degrees, while sanctification (God making us [practically] righteous through his Spirit's indwelling), though begun the moment we are justified, is gradual and throughout this life incomplete, as we are being transformed into the likeness of Christ 'from one degree of glory to another.' (2Cor. 3:18)...

There is no cooperation here between God and us, only a choice between two mutually exclusive ways, his and ours. Moreover, the faith which justifies is emphatically not another work. To say 'justification by faith' is merely another way of saying 'justification by Christ'. Faith has absolutely no value in itself; its value lies solely in its object. Faith is the eye that looks to Christ, the hand that lays hold of him, the mouth that drinks the water of life...

Justification is an external, legal declaration that the sinner has been put right with God, forgiven and reinstated. As Leon Morris has pointed out, 'when we speak of justifying an opinion or an action, we do not mean that we change or improve it. Rather we mean that we secure a verdict for it, we vindicate it'. (Cross in the New Testament, 242) Similarly, when Luke says that everybody, on hearing Jesus' teaching, 'justified God', what he means is that they 'acknowledged that God's way was right'. (Lk.7:29)...

The vocabulary of justification and condemnation occurs regularly in the Old Testament. Moses gave instructions to the Israelite judges (Deut.25:1; Prov.17:15) ...The prophet Isaiah pronounced a fierce woe against magistrates who 'acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent'. (Isa.5:23) ...Paul must have shocked his Roman readers when he wrote that 'God...justifies the wicked' (Rom.4:5)... In order to summarize Paul's defense of the divine justification of sinners, I will select four of his key phrases...

The source of our justification: justified by his grace (Rom.3:24), that is, by his utterly undeserved favor. Since it is certain that 'there is no-one righteous, not even one' (Rom.3:10), it is equally certain that no-one can declare himself to be righteous in God's sight. (Ps.143:2) Self-justification is a sheer impossibility (Rom.3:20). Therefore, 'it is God who justifies' (Rom.8:33); only he can. And he does it 'freely' (Rom.3:24, dōrean, 'as a free gift, gratis'), not because of any works of ours, but because of his own grace.

The ground of our justification: justified by his blood (Rom.5:9). Justification is not a synonym for amnesty, which strictly is pardon without principle, a forgiveness which overlooks - even forgets (amnestia is 'forgetfulness') - wrongdoing and declines to bring it to justice. No, justificaiton is an act of justice, of gracious justice. Its synonym is 'the righteousness of God' (Rom.1:17; 3:21), which might...be explained as his 'righteous way of righteoussing the unrighteous'. ...When God justifies sinners, he is not declaring bad people to be good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken law, because he himself in his Son has borne the penalty of their law-breaking.

The means of our justification: justified by faith (Rom.3:28; 5:1; Gal.2:16; Phil.3:9) Grace and faith belong indissolubly to one another, since faith's only function is to receive what grace freely offers. ...God's grace is the source and Christ's blood the ground of our justification; faith is only the means by which we are united to Christ. ...If faith is only the means, it is also the only means. ...The point of his writing 'by faith apart from works of law' was to exclude law-works altogether, leaving faith as the sole means of justification.

The effects of our justification: justified "in Christ" (Gal.2:17; cf. Rom.8:1-2; 2Cor.5:21; Eph.1:6) To say that we are justified 'through Christ' points to his historical death; to say that we are justified 'in Christ' points to the personal relationship with him which by faith we now enjoy. This simple fact makes it impossible for us to think of justification as a purely external transaction; it cannot be isolated from our union with Christ and all the benefits which this brings. The first is membership of the Messianic community of Jesus. ...Secondly, this new community... is to be 'eager to do what is good', and its members are to devote themselves to good works. So there is no ultimate conflict between Paul and James.

Reconciliation  [Rom.5:9-11; 2Cor.5:18-21; Col.1:21-22]

The fourth image of salvation, which illustrates the achievement of the cross, is 'reconciliation'. ...We have left behind us the temple precincts, the slave-market and the law courts; we are  now in our own home with our family and friends. True, there is a quarrel, even 'enmity', but to reconcile means to restore a relationship, to renew a friendship. So an original relationship is presupposed which, having been broken, has been recovered by Christ. ...Reconciliation with God, then, is the beginning. This is the meaning of 'atonement'. It alludes to the event through which God and human beings, previously alienated from one another, are made 'at one' again. ...Reconciliation is our personal relationship with our Father in the home.

Two other NT terms confirm this emphasis that reconciliation means peace with God, namely 'adoption' and 'access'. ... Access to God ... denote(s) the active communion with God, especially in prayer, which his reconciled children enjoy. ...Thus reconciliation, peace with God, adoption into his family and access into his presence all bear witness to the same new relationship into which God has brought us.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  [2Cor.5:18-21]

The first truth this passage makes clear is that God is the author of the reconciliation. ...Eight verbs...have God as their subject. They describe God's gracious initiative - God reconciling, God giving, God appealing, God making Christ to be sin for us. ...Therefore, no explanation of the atonement is biblical which takes the initiative from God...The initiative is certainly not ours. "All is of God; the only thing of my very own which I contribute to my redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed." [William Temple]

"'God was in Christ reconciling' (2Cor.5:19), actually reconciling, finishing the work. It was not a tentative, preliminary affair ... Reconciliation was finished in Christ's death. Paul did not preach a gradual reconciliation. He preached what the old divines used to call the finished work ... He preached something done once for all - a reconciliation which is the base of every soul's reconcilement, not an invitation only." [P.T. Forsyth, Work of Christ, 86]

[Previous Post: Chapter 7, Part One; Chapter 8]
[Challies' Review of Chapter 7]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 7 (Part One)

The Cross of Christ by John Stott is the current Challies' choice for his "Reading Classics Together" series. As I read through the book, I thought I'd share highlights from each chapter with you and include a link to Challies' full review. After having a taste, I hope you will want to spend time in this influential book yourself! 

Just as Scripture adopts various images to describe different aspects of a believer's relationship to God [e.g. Gentiles grafted into the vine, adoption by the Father as adult sons with certain rights & responsibilities,  slaves/servants (same Greek word) owned by our "Lord"), so it uses various images to describe different aspects of an individual's salvation.

I was mystified to recently read a comment on amazon critiquing MacArthur's new book, Slave. The reviewer boldly advised MacArthur should study his Bible more carefully, because he, the reviewer, was not a slave, but an adopted son! It was actually the reviewer who needed to study the Word more carefully! Both terms are used extensively in the New Testament to describe a believer's relationship with God. Each describes a different aspect of the same experience. They are not mutually exclusive! Stott also warns, "We must not deduce from this that to have understood the images is to have exhausted the meaning of the doctrine."

In Chapter 7, he examines God's salvation of sinners by focusing upon four key terms which look at salvation from four different aspects, utilizing four different images: propitiation, redemption, justification and reconciliation. In any conversation, whether face-to-face or when reading a book, definitions of key terms is absolutely crucial! It is not uncommon to perceive agreement where no actual agreement exists! A basic tenet to remember in any discussion is, "Define the terms." For a believer, it's crucial to define all terms on a biblical basis, which Stott takes great care to do. Also, keep in mind that Scripture draws these images from the 1st Century AD Greco-Roman world.

There is so much here to wrap our minds around, I have split this chapter into two posts.

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"The Salvation of Sinners" (Part One)

Propitiation   [Rom.3:24-25 hilastērion; 1Jn.2:1-2; 4:10 hilasmos]

To 'propitiate' somebody means to appease or pacify his anger. ...Such concepts sound more pagan than Christian. Crude concepts of anger, sacrifice and propitiation are...to be rejected. They do not belong to the religion of the Old Testament, let alone the New. ...What is revealed to us in Scripture is a pure doctrine (from which all pagan vulgarities have been expunged) of God's holy wrath, his loving self-sacrifice in Christ and his initiative to avert his own anger...

The reason why a propitiation is necessary is that sin arouses the wrath of God. ...God's anger is poles apart from ours. What provokes our anger (injured vanity) never provokes his; what provokes his anger (evil) seldom provokes ours.

In a pagan context it is always human beings who seek to avert the divine anger...by...practices thought to placate the offended deity. But the gospel begins with the outspoken assertion that nothing we can do, say, offer or even contribute can compensate for our sins or turn away God's anger. (Isa.64:6; Rom.3:10-12; Mt.5:3) ...The initiative has been taken by God himself in his sheer mercy and grace. ...God's love is the source, not the consequence, of the atonement. ...God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us. ...His character is unchanging. What the propitiation changed was his dealings with us. ...He forgave us and welcomed us home...

It is God himself who in holy wrath needs to be propitiated, God himself who in holy love undertook to do the propitiating, and God himself who in the person of his Son died for the propitiation of our sins. Thus God took his own loving initiative to appease his own righteous anger by bearing it his own self in his own Son when he took our place and died for us. There is no crudity here to evoke our ridicule, only the profundity of holy love to evoke our worship.

Redemption   [Mt.20:28; Mk.10:45; 1Tim.2:6]

In seeking to understand the achievement of the cross, the imagery changes from temple court to market-place, from the ceremonial realm to the commercial, from religious rituals to business transactions. For at its most basic to 'redeem' is to buy or buy back, whether as a purchase or a ransom. ...The emphasis of the redemption image is on our sorry state - indeed our captivity - in sin which made an act of divine rescue necessary. 'Propitiation' focuses on the wrath of God which was placated by the cross; 'redemption' on the plight of sinners from which they were ransomed by the cross...

The Greek words usually translated 'redeem'...and 'redemption' are derived from lutron ('a ransom' or 'price of release')...usually at a great cost. ...There was the cost of the incarnation, of entering into our condition in order to reach us. (Gal.4:4-5) ...Beyond the incarnation, however, lay the atonement. To accomplish this he gave 'himself' (1Tim.2:6; Titus 2:14) or his 'life' (Mk.10:45), dying under the law's curse to redeem us from it. (Gal.3:13) ...In addition to the plight from which, and the price with which, we are ransomed, it draws attention to the person of the redeemer who has proprietary rights over his purchase. Thus Jesus' lordship over both church and Christian is attributed to his having bought us with his own blood. (Acts 20:28) If the church was worth his blood, is it not worth our labor? The privilege of serving it is established by the preciousness of the price paid for its purchase.

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 6

The Cross of Christ by John Stott is the current Challies' choice for his "Reading Classics Together" series. As I read through the book, I thought I'd share highlights from each chapter with you and include a link to Challies' full review. After having a taste, I hope you will want to spend time in this influential book yourself! 

There is so much good material in this chapter, I hardly know where to begin! So I will start where Stott does, by tying the OT shadows of substitutionary atonement to their NT fulfillment. That's quite helpful for most of us who don't have the familiarity with the OT that we should have. As you read through the Bible, always keep in mind that it is ONE book ultimately composed by ONE person, the Holy Spirit. (2Pet.1:20-21)  God is telling ONE story, progressively revealed.

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"The Self-Substitution of God"

For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."  (Lev.17:11)

Three important affirmations about blood are made in this text. 

First, blood is the symbol of life. This understanding that 'blood is life' seems to be very ancient. It goes back at least to Noah (Gen.9:4) ... The emphasis, however, was not on blood flowing in the veins, the symbol of life being lived, but on the blood shed, the symbol of life ended, usually by violent means.

Secondly, blood makes atonement, and the reason for its atoning significance is given in the repetition of the word 'life' ... One life is forfeit; another life is sacrificed instead .... T.J. Crawford expressed it well: 'The text, then, according to its plain and obvious import, teaches the vicarious nature of the rite of sacrifice. Life was given for life, the life of the victim for the life of the offerer', indeed 'the life of the innocent victim for the life of the sinful offerer'." [Doctrine of Holy Scripture, 237, 241]

Thirdly, blood was given by God for this atoning purpose. 'I have given it to you', he says, 'to make atonement for yourselves on the altar.' So we are to think of the sacrificial system as God-given, not man-made, and of the individual sacrifices not as a human device to placate God but as a means of atonement provided by God himself. [cf. Heb.9:22, 10:4 No forgiveness without blood meant no atonement without substitution.]

But the OT blood sacrifices were only shadows; the substance was Christ. (Col.2:17) For a substitute to be effective, it must be an appropriate equivalent ... Only 'the precious blood of Christ' was valuable enough (1Pet.1:19) ... The possibility of substitution rests on the identity of the substitute.

Our substitute then, who took our place and died our death on the cross, was neither Christ alone ... nor God alone ... but God in Christ, who was truly and fully both God and man, and who on that account was uniquely qualified to represent both God and man and to mediate between them ... The only way for God's holy love to be satisfied is for his holiness to be directed in judgment upon his appointed substitute, in order that his love may be directed towards us in forgiveness. The substitute bears the penalty, that we sinners may receive the pardon.

Christ is not an independent third person, but the eternal Son of the Father, who is one with the Father in his essential being ... For in giving his Son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim ... Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.

The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone ... The theological inference is that it is impossible to hold the historic doctrine of the cross without holding the historic doctrine of Jesus Christ as the one and only God-man and Mediator ... The incarnation is indispensable to the atonement. In particular, it is essential to affirm that the love, the holiness and the will of the Father are identical with the love, the holiness and the will of the Son. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. (2Cor.5:19)

The second inference is personal. The doctrine of substitution affirms not only a fact (God in Christ substituted himself for us) but its necessity (there was no other way by which God's holy love could be satisfied and rebellious human beings could be saved). (Jn.14:6) Therefore, as we stand before the cross, we begin to gain a clear view both of God and of ourselves, especially in relation to each other. Instead of inflicting upon us the judgment we deserved, God in Christ endured it in our place. Hell is the only alternative. This is the 'scandal', the stumbling-block [Greek: skandalon], of the cross. For our proud hearts rebel against it. We cannot bear to acknowledge either the seriousness of our sin and guilt or our utter indebtedness to that cross. Surely, we say, there must be something we can do, or at least contribute, in order to make amends? ... The proud human heart is there revealed. We insist on paying for what we have done. We cannot stand the humiliation of acknowledging our bankruptcy (Mt.5:3) and allowing somebody else to pay for us. The notion that this somebody else would be God himself is just too much to take. We would rather perish than repent, rather lose ourselves than humble ourselves.

But we cannot escape the embarrassment of standing stark naked before God. It is no use our trying to cover up like Adam and Eve in the garden. Our attempts at self-justification are as ineffectual as their fig-leaves. (Gen.3:7-10) We have to acknowledge our nakedness, see the divine substitute wearing our filthy rags instead of us, and allow him to clothe us with his own righteousness. (Rev.3:17-18)

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to your Cross I cling;

Naked, come to you for dress;

Helpless, look to you for grace;

Foul, I to the fountain fly;

Wash me, Savior, or I die.

[Rock of Ages, Augustus Toplady]

[Challies' review of Chapter 6]
[Selections: Chapter 1; Chapter 7, Part One; Chapter 7, Part Two]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 5

The Cross of Christ by John Stott is the current Challies' choice for his "Reading Classics Together" series. As I read through the book, I thought I'd share highlights from each chapter with you and include a link to Challies' full review. After having a taste, I hope you will want to spend time in this influential book yourself! 

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                                         "Satisfaction for Sin"

"We must certainly remain dissatisfied whenever the atonement is presented as a necessary satisfaction either of God's 'law' or of God's 'honor' in so far as these are objectified as existing in some way apart from him ... 'Satisfaction' is an appropriate word, providing we realize that it is he himself in his inner being who needs to be satisfied, and not something external to himself. Talk of law, honor, justice and the moral order is true only in so far as these are seen as expressions of God's own character. Atonement is a 'necessity' because it 'arises from within God himself.' [Ronald S. Wallace, Atoning Death]

To be sure, 'self-satisfaction' in fallen human beings is a particularly unpleasant phenomenon ... since we are tainted and twisted with selfishness. But there is no lack of self-control or humility in God, since he is perfect in all his thoughts and desires. To say that he must 'satisfy himself' means that he must be himself and act according to the perfection of his nature or 'name'. ... Negatively, he 'cannot disown himself' (2Tim.2:13); he cannot contradict himself; he 'never lies' (Titus 1:2, apseudēs, 'free from all deceit'), for the simple reason that 'it is impossible for God to lie' (Heb.6:18); he is never arbitrary, unpredictable or capricious; he says 'I will not ... be false to my faithfulness' (Ps.89:33). Positively, he is a 'faithful God who does no wrong' (Deut.32:4). That is, he is true to himself; he is always invariably himself. Scripture has several ways of drawing attention to God's self-consistency, and in particular of emphasizing that when he is obliged to judge sinners, he does it because he must, if he is to remain true to himself. 

The first example is the language of provocation. Yahweh is described (and indeed describes himself) as 'provoked' by Israel's idolatry to anger or jealousy or both. ... The exilic prophets, such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel, were constantly employing this vocabulary. They did not mean that Yahweh was irritated or exasperated, or that Israel's behavior had been so 'provocative' that his patience had run out. No, the language of provocation expresses the inevitable reaction of God's perfect nature to evil. It indicates that there is within God a holy intolerance of idolatry, immorality and injustice. Wherever these occur, they act as stimuli to trigger his response of anger or indignation. He is never provoked without reason. It is evil alone which provokes him, and necessarily so since God must be (and behave like) God.

Secondly, there is the language of burning. ... verbs which depict God's anger as a fire and speak of its 'kindling', 'burning', 'quenching' and 'consuming'. It is ... applied in the Old Testament to Yahweh, who 'burns with anger' whenever he sees his people disobeying his law and breaking his covenant. ... Never from caprice, however, always only in response to evil. Nor was his anger ever uncontrolled. Once kindled, it was not readily 'quenched'. Instead, when Yahweh's anger 'burned' against people, it 'consumed' them. That is to say, as fire leads to destruction, so Yahweh's anger leads to judgment. For Yahweh is 'a consuming fire'. The fire of his anger was 'quenched', and so 'subsided' or 'ceased', only when the judgment was complete, or when a radical regeneration had taken place, issuing in social justice. There is something in God's essential moral being which is 'provoked' by evil, and which is 'ignited' by it, proceeding to 'burn' until the evil is 'consumed'.

Thirdly, there is the language of satisfaction itself. The chief word is kalah... It means 'to be complete, at an end, finished, accomplished, spent'. It occurs in a variety of contexts in the OT, nearly always to indicate the 'end' of something, either because it has been destroyed, or because it has been finished in some other way. [Jesus on the cross "said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." John 19:30] ... It is significant that the 'pouring out' and the 'spending' go together, for what is poured out cannot be gathered again, and what is spent is finished. (Lam.4:11) ... To sum up, God is 'provoked' to jealous anger over his people by their sins. Once kindled, his anger 'burns' and is not easily quenched. He 'unleashes' it, 'pours' it out, 'spends' it. This three-fold vocabulary vividly portrays God's judgment as arising from within him, out of his holy character, as wholly consonant with it, and therefore as inevitable. ...

[Fourthly, there is] the language of the Name, God always acts 'according to his name'... When God thus acts 'for the sake of his name', he is determining to be true to it. His concern is less for his reputation than for his consistency.

... the way God chooses to forgive sinners and reconcile them to himself must, first and foremost, be fully consistent with his own character. ... So then, the cross of Christ 'is the event in which God makes known his holiness and his love, simultaneously, in one event, in an absolute manner'. [Emil Brunner, The Mediator]  God is not at odds with himself, however much it may appear to us that he is. He is 'the God of peace', of inner tranquility not turmoil. True, we find it difficult to hold in our minds simultaneously the images of God as the Judge who must punish evil-doers and the Lover who must find a way to forgive them. Yet he is both, and at the same time. In the words of G.C. Berkouwer, 'in the cross of Christ God's justice and love are simultaneously revealed' [Work of Christ] ... One theologian who has struggled with this tension is P.T. Forsyth, who coined - or at least popularized - the expression 'the holy love of God'... 'Without a holy God there would be no problem of atonement. It is the holiness of God's love that necessitates the atoning cross.' [Cruciality of the Cross] This vision of God's holy love will deliver us from caricatures of him. We must picture him neither as an indulgent God who compromises his holiness in order to spare and spoil us, nor as a harsh, vindictive God who suppresses his love in order to crush and destroy us."

Beneath the cross of Jesus

   I fain would take my stand -

The shadow of a mighty rock

   Within a weary land ...

O safe and happy shelter!

   O refuge tried and sweet!

O trysting-place, where heaven's love

   And heaven's justice meet.

[Challies' review of Chapter 5]
[Selections: Chapter 1, Chapter 6]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 4

The Cross of Christ by John Stott is the current Challies' choice for his "Reading Classics Together" series. As I read through the book, I thought I'd share highlights from each chapter with you and include a link to Challies' full review. After having a taste, I hope you will want to spend time in this influential book yourself!
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"The Problem of Forgiveness" (Chapter 4)

"...we have dared to proclaim our self-dependence, our autonomy, which is to claim the position occupied by God alone. Sin is not a regrettable lapse from conventional standards; its essence is hostility to God (Rom.8:7), issuing in active rebellion against him. It has been described in terms of 'getting rid of the Lord God' in order to put ourselves in his place in a haughty spirit of 'God-almightiness'. Emil Brunner sums it up well: 'Sin is defiance, arrogance, the desire to be equal with God, ... the assertion of human independence over against God, ... the constitution of the autonomous reason, morality and culture.' [Man in Revolt, 129]

The Bible takes sin seriously because it takes man seriously ... It is part of the glory of being human that we are held responsible for our actions. Then, when we also acknowledge our sin and guilt, we receive God's forgiveness, enter into the joy of his salvation, and so become yet more completely human and healthy. What is unhealthy is every wallowing in guilt which does not lead to confession, repentance, faith in Jesus Christ and so forgiveness...

... the essential background to the cross is not only the sin, responsibility and guilt of human beings but the just reaction of God to these things, in other words his holiness and wrath. That God is holy is foundational to biblical religion. So is the corollary that sin is incompatible with his holiness. His eyes are 'too pure to look on evil' and he 'cannot tolerate wrong' (Hab.1:13; Isa.59:1-2). Therefore our sins effectively separate us from him ... Closely related to God's holiness is his wrath, which is in fact his holy reaction to evil.

Human anger is usually arbitrary and uninhibited; divine anger is always principled and controlled. Our anger tends to be a spasmodic outburst, aroused by pique and seeking revenge; God's is a continuous, settled antagonism, aroused only by evil, and expressed in its condemnation. God is entirely free from personal animosity or vindictiveness; indeed, he is sustained simultaneously with undiminished love for the offender ... What is common to the biblical concepts of the holiness and the wrath of God is the truth that they cannot coexist with sin. God's holiness exposes sin; his wrath opposes it...

We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won for us only after we have first seen God's inaccessibility to sinners. We can cry 'Hallelujah' with authenticity only after we have first cried 'Woe is me, for I am lost'... All inadequate doctrines of the atonement are due to inadequate doctrines of God and man. If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to his, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it. When, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God, and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely 'hell-deserving sinners', then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before. (1Pet.1:17)

The essential background to the cross, therefore, is a balanced understanding of the gravity of sin and the majesty of God. If we diminish either, we thereby diminish the cross. If we reinterpret sin as a lapse instead of a rebellion, and God as indulgent instead of indignant, then naturally the cross appears superfluous. But to dethrone God and enthrone ourselves not only dispenses with the cross; it also degrades both God and man."

[Challies' review of Chapter 4]

[Selections: Chapter 1; Chapter 5]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 3

The Cross of Christ is the current Challies' choice for his "Reading Classics Together" series. As I read through the book, I thought I'd share highlights from each chapter with you and include a link to Challies' full review. After having a taste, I hope you will want to spend time in this influential book yourself. 

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"Looking Below the Surface" (Chapter 3)

 "The cross enforces three truths - about ourselves, about God and about Jesus Christ.

First, our sin must be extremely horrible. 

Nothing reveals the gravity of sin like the cross. For ultimately what sent Christ there was neither the greed of Judas, nor the envy of the priests, nor the vacillating cowardice of Pilate, but our own greed, envy, cowardice and other sins, and Christ's resolve in love and mercy to bear their judgment and so put them away. It is impossible for us to face Christ's cross with integrity and not to feel ashamed of ourselves. Apathy, selfishness and complacency blossom everywhere in the world except at the cross. There these noxious weeds shrivel and die. They are seen for the tatty, poisonous things they are. For if there was no way by which the righteous God could righteously forgive our unrighteousness, except that he should bear it himself in Christ, it must be serious indeed. It is only when we see this that, stripped of our self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, we are ready to put our trust in Jesus Christ as the Savior we urgently need.

Secondly, God's love must be wonderful beyond comprehension. 

God could quite justly have abandoned us to our fate. He could have left us alone to reap the fruit of our wrongdoing and to perish in our sins. It is what we deserved. But he did not.  Because he loved us, he came after us in Christ. He pursued us even to the desolate anguish of the cross, where he bore our sin, guilt, judgment and death. It takes a hard and stony heart to remain unmoved by love like that. It is more than love. Its proper name is 'grace', which is love to the undeserving.

Thirdly, Christ's salvation must be a free gift. 

He 'purchased' it for us at the high price of his own life-blood. So what is there left for us to pay? Nothing! Since he claimed that all was now 'finished' [Greek 'teleo' - to completely fulfill, bring to planned consummation, brought to perfection; Perfect Tense, literally meaning "it has been and will for ever remain finished"], there is nothing for us to contribute. Not of course that we now have a license to sin and can always count on God's forgiveness. On the contrary, the same cross of Christ, which is the ground of a free salvation, is also the most powerful incentive to a holy life. But this new life follows. First, we have to humble ourselves at the foot of the cross, confess that we have sinned and deserve nothing at his hand but judgment, thank him that he loved us and died for us, and receive from him a full and free forgiveness. Against this self-humbling our ingrained pride rebels. We resent the idea that we cannot earn - or even contribute to - our own salvation. So we stumble, as Paul put it, over the stumbling-block of the cross. (1Cor.1:23; Rom.9:32)"

[Tim Challies' review of Chapter 3]
[Selections: Chapter 1, Chapter 4]

The Cross of Christ - Chapter 2

The Cross of Christ is the current Challies' choice for his "Reading Classics Together" series. As I read through the book, I thought I'd share highlights from each chapter with you and include a link to Challies' full review. After having a taste, I hope you will want to spend time in this influential book yourself.

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"Why Did Jesus Die?" (Chapter 2)

 

"... we ourselves are also guilty. 

 Indeed, we have done it. For whenever we turn away from Christ, we 'are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace' (Heb.6:6). We too sacrifice Jesus to our greed like Judas, to our envy like the priests, to our ambition like Pilate. 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord?' the old spiritual asks. And we must answer, 'Yes, we were there.' Not as spectators only but as participants, guilty participants, plotting, scheming, betraying, bargaining, and handing him over to be crucified. We may wish to wash our hands of responsibility like Pilate. But our attempt will be as futile as his. For there is blood on our hands. Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading us to repentance). Indeed, 'only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross', wrote Canon Peter Green, 'may claim his share in its grace.' (Watchers by the Cross)

...although Jesus was brought to his death by human sins, he did not die as a martyr. 

On the contrary, he went to the cross voluntarily, even deliberately. From the beginning of his public ministry he consecrated himself to this destiny... 'The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,' he said. Then, dropping the metaphor, 'I lay down my life ... No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord' (Jn.10:11, 17-18).

Moreover, when the apostles took up in their letters the voluntary nature of the dying of Jesus, they several times used the very verb (paradidomi) which the evangelists used of his being 'handed over' to death by others. Thus Paul could write 'the Son of God...loved me and gave himself for me' (Gal.2:20). It was perhaps a conscious echo of Isaiah 53:12, which says that 'he poured out (LXX paredothe) his life unto death'. Paul also used the same verb when he looked behind the voluntary self-surrender of the Son to the Father's surrender of him. For example, 'he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Rom.8:32). Octavius Winslow summed it up in a neat statement: 'Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; - but the Father, for love!" (No Condemnation in Christ Jesus)

It is essential to keep together these two complementary ways of looking at the cross. 

On the human level, Judas gave him up to the priests, who gave him up to Pilate, who gave him up to the soldiers, who crucified him. But on the divine level, the Father gave him up, and he gave himself up, to die for us. As we face the cross, then, we can say to ourselves both, 'I did it, my sins sent him there' and 'he did it, his love took him there'. The apostle Peter brought the two truths together in his remarkable statement on the Day of Pentecost, both that 'this man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge' and that 'you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross'. Peter thus attributed Jesus' death simultaneously to the plan of God and to the wickedness of men. For the cross which ... is an exposure of human evil, is at the same time a revelation of the divine purpose to overcome the human evil thus exposed." 

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"But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. ... But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering..."  (Isa.53:5, 10)

[Tim Challies' review of Chapter 2]
[Selections from Chapter 1, Chapter 3]