Avoiding Evil

I think it is important for me to be reminded that I am a saved out of the abundance of God’s grace and not out of my own self worth. I have nothing that I could offer and nothing that I could have ever done or given in order to obtain the Salvation given to me through Christ Jesus. God didn’t pick only the elite people to be saved and Jesus didn’t die for those with certain qualities or abilities that others don’t have. The fact is, while I was a completely worthless, godless, sinner, with nothing to offer, Christ died for me. “One will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - Romans 5:7-8

God didn’t wait until I cleaned my life up and lived a pure righteous life before He sent Christ to die for my sins. Instead, God knew that there is no way possible that I would ever clean my life up and do what is right. In fact, I am unable to do good. Therefore, while I am a pathetic, lost sinner with no hope Christ came to earth to suffer and die for me. It is this grace, mercy, and love of God that I do not deserve.

As Christians I think we far too often take for granted this very fact and act as if we deserve what we have. Our church, our family, our stuff, our life, we sometimes think that we are so very deserving of all of these things because we work for them, we do good, we pay our tithes, we show up every Sunday and God should reward us with blessings. I often ask the question, “If you woke up tomorrow and only had what you thanked God for the day before then what would you have left?” Everything we have is from God, not because we deserve it, but because of his grace and his goodness towards us. We should be ever mindful of Christ’s sacrifice for people who didn’t deserve it and we should be thankful for God’s grace and mercy on those who did not earn it. Truely God loved us, though we did not love Him.

Christ suffered and died to obtain the resurrection. Hebrews 13:20-21 says, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will.” It was by the blood of Christ that God raised Him from the dead. It was through the fufillment of God’s purpose that Christ became human, remained obedient, then suffered and died in our place that the sins of the world might fall upon his shoulders and that his death might satisfy the wrath of God burning against the children of disobedience. Once Christ took on the sins of the world and suffered and died, then God was pleased to raise Him from the dead, defeating death and sin once and for all.

It is essential that Christ would rise from the dead, it is the very indication of the fulfillment of God’s purpose in salvation. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then we are utterly lost and without hope. “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and ou are still in your sins.” - 1 Corinthians 15:17. If Jesus has not been raised from the dead then his suffering and pain was a failure.

We find that it was through Christs life as a human and death on the cross that allowed him to take on the sins of the world and it was through his resurrection from the dead that fufilled that victory. Without the resurrection there is no forgiveness for sin.

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Conscept from:
Piper, John. The Passion of Jesus Christ. Crossway Books. (c) 2004 by Desiring God Foundation. Pg. 26-27

“Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.” - Hebrews 5:8

“For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” - Hebrews 2:10

Christ learned obedience through His suffering and in it he was made perfect. Piper points out, in The Passion of Jesus Christ, that Christ was sinless and therefore when the Bible says that Christ “learned obedience” it doesn’t mean that Christ learned how to not disobey, but instead he learned what it means to be obedient (pg. 24-25) Even in tremendous pain and suffering Christ remained obedient to the Father.

Christ was fully human which means he experienced everything that we experience in regards to pain, suffering, and temptation. Christ was tempted in the same ways we are, he felt hunger the same way we do, he felt pain that we feel, and he lived just as we live; he was completely and totally human. In His humanity Christ learned what it meant to be obedient, he learned what it meant to be tempted, he learned what it meant to be human. Not to say that God couldn’t know what man feels or goes through, however, Jesus received first hand knowledge of this as he became a human in order to fulfill God’s righteous plan. It is in Christ’s suffering that His humanity was fulfilled and it was through His pain that his full humanity could take on the sins of those he came to save.

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Conscept from:
Piper, John. The Passion of Jesus Christ. Crossway Books. (c) 2004 by Desiring God Foundation. Pg. 24-25

Continuing to read John Piper’s book “The Passion of Jesus Christ”, today’s chapter was on the pleasure of God. It pleased God that Christ suffered and died.

“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” - Isaiah 53:10

“Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” - Ephesians 5:2

I don’t believe that the idea of Jesus having do die on the cross was a new concept or that it just happened all of a sudden. I don’t think the events leading up to the death of Christ were a matter of pure chance and happenstance, but in fact I believe that the whole thing was purposed and planned by God who knew from the beginning what needed to be done.

Christ died on the cross in submission and obedience to the Father whose plan had continued to be carried out even before the beginning of time. God’s justice requires that His wrath be poured out upon transgressors and yet His love enacts grace upon those transgressors through the blood of Christ who willingliy and submissivly gave his life. Christ in his full diety was able to take on our sin and did so to fufill the purpose of God in salvation, which pleased the Father.

It pleased God that Christ was obedient. It pleased God that his wrath was appeased and it pleased God that lost sinners were able to be united with Him once more through Christ. The Bible says that Christs death was a “fragrant offering” to God.

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Conscept from:
Piper, John. The Passion of Jesus Christ. Crossway Books. (c) 2004 by Desiring God Foundation. Pg. 22-23

Today I started my morning with reading the first three chapters in Matthew. I’ve decided to read through the gospels and the rest of the New Testament once again. In doing so, I’ve also decided to read a chapter a day of “The Passion of Jesus Christ” by John Piper. In this book Piper gives 50 reasons why Christ suffered and died.

We often get a variety of different teachers with slightly different beliefs and theological backgrounds in seminary. I for one don’t mind that because it helps me to test and approve what I believe. Two weeks ago I took an apologetics class with a guy who strayed away from the calvinistic side of reformed theology. One of the people who he openly declared that he didn’t care for was John Piper. He didn’t agree with Piper’s constant vision toward everything being done and purposed by God for God’s glory. I don’t think he meant to say that Piper’s theology was bad, or that Christians shouldn’t read Piper, he was simply disagreeing with some of the beliefs brought out in all of Piper’s books. This sparked some interest in me to read some more Piper books.

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us-for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” - Galatians 3:13

“God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” - Romans 3:25

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

Why did Jesus have to die? Why couldn’t God just ignore our sin and make everything ok? These questions can be answered in one word, justice. God is a God of justice and that justice demands that a price be paid for crimes committed against Him.

Within the last couple months I have hit hard the idea of sin being God’s holiness violated. I heard that in a sermon preached by Dr. Al Mohler and then it just stuck. God is infinitely pure and holy, beyond my imagination and beyond what I can grasp. For anything to violate that holiness would be an infinite and eternal injustice. That is why eternity apart from God is the punishment for such crime. Why eternity? Because the penalty can never be fully paid for by a mere human, therefore God’s justice demands an eternal suffering because he is an eternal God. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Because of God’s justice his wrath burns against any violation of His eternal holiness. To not punish such sin would be unjust on God’s part. Therefore all mankind is cursed because all men sin against God and all men bring down God’s wrath upon themselves because of this sin and thus we all stand condemned before God with no way of paying the price for this sin. We have no ability within ourselves to pay this eternal penalty. Did Jesus have to die? Yes. Because God is just, a penalty is demanded. Because God is loving he sent His son to pay the penalty in our place. Christ is our substitue, our propitiation. All of our sin against God’s holiness was cast upon Christ who was willing and able to bear that sin. Christ was fully man which allowed him to take on the sin of man and Christ was fully God which allowed him to pay an eternal price. Why did Christ have to suffer and die? To pay the penalty of our sin and to absorb the wrath of God.

We must recognize the seriousness of our sin and its great cost. Sin takes away life. It has taken the life of humanity and to save humanity it took the life of Jesus. Unlike humanity, Jesus defeated death by rising from the dead three days later. We too are risen again in Christ by his saving grace and through Jesus we are no longer condemned. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” - Romans 8:1

Only in Christ’s death and resurrection are our sins paid for and it is only through Christ that we can find forgivness and saftey from the wrath of God that burns against sin. Without Christ there would be no hope.

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Conscept from:
Piper, John. The Passion of Jesus Christ. Crossway Books. (c) 2004 by Desiring God Foundation. Pg. 20-21