“Thy Death is My Life”

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Jim Hough

Earlier this week I posted a Puritan prayer entitled “Resurrection.”  In it, the writer describes the great joy he has in meditating on the death and resurrection of Christ.  Today, Good Friday is meant as a remembrance of Jesus’ death.  We look back on the day when He was crucified and remember why he had to die.  Many people have written many things on why Jesus had to die.  John Piper wrote a book with fifty different reasons.  While all of these are valid, the Puritan writer gave us one clear reason and that was to give us life.  This claim is also made in Romans 5:18 “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”  So how does the death of one man give us life?  The answer lies in who Jesus is, what he died for, and what his death means for us.

Who is Jesus?  Jesus was far more than just a man.  He was both fully human and fully God.  He was fully human, born as a child.  He also had human limitations such as hunger (Matt 4:2), thirst (19:28), and weariness (John 4:6).  Jesus faced temptations just as we all do, yet he was unlike the rest of mankind in that He did not sin. (2 Cor 5:21).  It is important to know that Jesus was fully human, because that is the only way that he could have been our perfect substitute and our example and pattern in life.  If he had not been human, he could not have died in our place and we would not be able to imitate his life.  However, one human’s sacrifice is not enough to save all of mankind.  It was necessary that Jesus was fully God so that his death would be sufficient for all that would believe in Him.  It is through Jesus’ humanity that he is made a substitute for us, and it is through His deity that all mankind may have eternal life.

What did Jesus die for?  Jesus, the infinite God-man, died to pay the penalty for our sins.  When Adam sinned in the garden (Gen 3), he brought death to the entire human race.  Romans 5:12 describes this, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”  This is not a physical death, but a spiritual death that is marked by separation from God.  Our God is a holy God and cannot allow sin to go unpunished.  Since we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:10-18), we must all pay the penalty for that sin, and “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom 6:23)   If that were the end of the story, then there would be no hope of life for any of us.  Thankfully, God loved us enough that he did not leave us without hope.  As the familiar verse John 3:16 says, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  Just as sin entered the world through one man, namely Adam, the penalty for sin was paid by one man, Jesus.

What does Jesus’ death mean for us?  The ultimate result of Jesus’ death on the cross is that there is no condemnation for those who trust in Christ.  He died that we might have life in Him and with the Father.  He did this so that we would no longer live for ourselves, but for Him.  When we believe in Christ we die to ourselves and to our sinful ways.  So not only did he pay the penalty for sin, but he defeats the sin in us as well.  This gives us a new life, a life that we live for God.  This is what the writer of “Resurrection” was proclaiming when he said “Thy death is my life.”  Through the death of Christ we are redeemed from our sin and no longer have to pay the penalty of death.  Sin is also defeated in us and we are given a new life that we may live for righteousness.  The death of Christ is life for a Christian and in this we may rejoice.

Posted in Easter Series, Theology | Leave a comment

Hearing the Word of God

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Jim Hough

Last week I began this series by discussing the importance of discipline in our spiritual lives.  This week we will begin to look at practical steps towards disciplining ourselves to be more Christlike.  If we want to take on the attributes of godliness, we first need to know what they are.  God has revealed these characteristics about himself to his people in two ways.  The first is what theologians call general revelation.  Paul tells us in Romans 1:19-20 “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”  Essentially this says that creation is enough to tell us that God exists and that He has eternal power and a divine nature.  These attributes are things we cannot imitate.  The attributes that men can imitate such as mercy and love are called communicable attributes.  We cannot find out about these by simply looking at creation, so we need something more.  This is why God has revealed himself in another way, through his Word.  In order for us to become more like Christ, it is vital that we know who He is.  We accomplish this through careful intake of Scripture.

This discipline isn’t simply reading your Bible.  There are at least five ways that we can learn from scriptures.  These are hearing, reading, studying, memorizing and meditating.  One illustration that is commonly used is to think of them as fingers on a hand.  When you try to grip you bible with just one finger (only hearing or reading) you cannot grip the Bible.  However, when you use all five methods, or all five fingers, you will have a strong grip on the Word.  Today, we will focus on the first discipline of Bible intake which is hearing.

Hearing scripture may not seem like much of a discipline, but it is a very easy one to overlook.  The most likely place that we will hear the Word of God spoken is on Sundays from a Sermon.  Listening to good biblically based preaching is important to guide one’s spiritual growth.  However, just hearing it is not the goal.  When we hear the scriptures preached, our goal should be obedience.  In Luke 11:28, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”  So when listening to a sermon, there are a few practical things we can do in order to ensure we are in obedience to God’s Word.

First is preparation for the sermon.  This involves things like ensuring you get enough rest the night before and praying for the pastor delivering the message.  During the message, jot down notes of key points and practical applications so that you can remember them later.  Finally during the week after the sermon, sit down and ask these questions:

-      How does God want my beliefs/actions to change?

-      How can I accomplish this change?

-      What is the first step toward bringing this change?

-      Who will I talk to about what I learned from God today?

The focus of these questions is biblical change and conforming our lives to look more like Christ.  The importance of the last question is two-fold.  When we proclaim the Word, just like teaching any other subject, we gain a better grasp on it.  The second is accountability.  If you tell someone else about what you have learned and what you are doing, they can help you to keep to it.

Learning about who God is through listening to Scripture is an often overlooked discipline, but is a crucial one to our spiritual growth.

Posted in Christian Living, Discipline Series | Leave a comment

Resurrection

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Jim Hough

The following prayer is from a collection called Valley of Vision, entitled “Resurrection.”  It cries out to God in thankfulness for Christ as a redeemer, praising Him for the victory over death and assurance of salvation.  Read this and think about what scripture says about the death and resurrection of Christ as we approach Easter Sunday.  On Good Friday I will post a blog exploring the paradox of the line “Thy death is my life,” and another on Easter Sunday about “Thy resurrection is my peace.” During the following weeks I will post on the final two lines of the prayer concerning Christ’s ascension and his prayers.  Throughout the weekend I pray that you will consider and meditate on the sacrifice that Christ made that we might know how great our God is.

Resurrection

O God of my Exodus, Great was the joy of Israel’s sons,
when Egypt died upon the shore, Far greater the joy when
the Redeemer’s foe lay crushed in the dust.

 Jesus strides forth as the victor, conqueror of death, hell, and all opposing might;
He bursts the bands of death, tramples the powers of darkness down, and lives forever.

 He, my gracious surety, apprehended for payment of my debt,
comes forth from the house of the grave free, and triumphant over sin, Satan, and death.

 Show me herein the proof that his vicarious offering is accepted,
that the claims of justice are satisfied, the the devil’s scepter is shivered,
that his wrongful throne is leveled Give me the assurance that in Christ I died,
in him I rose, in his life I live, in his victory I triumph,
in his ascension I shall be glorified.

 Adorable Redeemer, thou who wast lifted upon a cross art ascended to highest heaven.
Thou, who as Man of Sorrows was crowned with thorns,
art now Lord of life wreathed with glory.

 Once, no shame more deep than thine, no agony more bitter, no death more cruel.
Now, no exaltation more high, no life more glorious, no advocate more effective.

Thou art in the triumph car leading captive thine enemies behind thee.
What more could be done than thou hast done!

Thy death is my life,
Thy resurrection my peace,
Thy ascension my hope,
Thy prayers my comfort.

Posted in Easter Series | Leave a comment

Why Discipline?

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Jim Hough

Today I’m starting a new blog series on the disciplines of a Godly life. When we approach this subject, the first question that we have to answer is “What is discipline and why do we need it?” A simple definition tells us that discipline is any activity, exercise or regimen that improves a skill. For example, practicing the piano to become a better piano player would be using discipline. In the same way, spiritual disciplines are practices that we use to become more and more like Christ. Our purpose in life as Christians is to glorify God, and we do this by becoming more like him. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph 5:1) Discipline is one of the means that God uses to make us more like Him. The disciplines do not have to be drudgery and difficult habits when we keep this in mind. God has not commanded us to do these things because it is necessary paperwork to get to heaven, but because it is how we can know Him better and become more like Him. In practicing the disciplines we must remember that our goal is Godliness.

In order to achieve the goal of Godliness, we have to discipline ourselves and use the means of growth that God has given us. Donald Whitney puts it this way; “Think of Spiritual Disciplines as spiritual exercises. To go to your favorite spot for prayer or journaling, for example, is like going to a gym and using a weight machine. As physical disciplines like this promote strength, so the Spiritual Disciplines promote Godliness.” Paul encouraged Timothy with this same metaphor saying “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come.” (1 Tim 4:8) In the next several weeks I will write a posts on several of the disciplines that help us to promote a healthy spiritual lifestyle. When you go to the gym, there isn’t one machine that does everything. In the same way we have several disciplines to work out different spiritual muscles, so to speak. While there are some that are vitally important, such as Bible intake and prayer, all of them are means that God uses to help us grow to be more like Christ.

As we study these disciplines remember the goal of being imitators of God. These are not means of salvation, only trusting in what Christ has done on the cross can do that. However, these are a way to grow in our knowledge of God and our imitation of Him.

Posted in Christian Living, Discipline Series | Leave a comment

Eight Ways to Approach Scripture

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Pastor Dan

Eight Ways to Approach Scripture.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

The G.O.S.P.E.L. Rap

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Pastor Andrew

Check out this gospel presentation.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Christmas in Three Words, Pt 3

Posted on December 24, 2011 by Pastor Andrew

3. Christmas is essential: it really matters

Jesus didn’t just come to earth to demonstrate God’s love; he came to achieve an urgent rescue. The apostle Paul, one of the greatest early Christian leaders, tells us: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’.

Our behaviour is illustrated by the story of a little boy who had desperately wanted to play Joseph in the school nativity play but was given the more minor part of the inn keeper instead. Wounded, the boy sulkily waited for a suitable moment to take his revenge. On the night of the play, with the school hall packed with teachers and proud parents, Mary and Joseph came towards him and delivered their familiar line: ‘Is there any room at the inn?’

Instead of saying ‘no’ and offering the stable, the boy saw his opportunity to steal the show and, with a broad smile replied, ‘Yes, plenty of room, come right in!’ Poor Mary and Joseph stood dumbfounded, not knowing what to do next, and the production descended into chaos.

There’s something of that boy in all of us. If all the world’s a stage, then God our creator wrote the play, designed the set and is the producer as well. Our role is to live as he designed us to: in grateful, trusting submission to him. That is the best way to live, as the maker intended. But we’re not happy with the part he has given us: it doesn’t give us the prominence we think we deserve, so we tear up the script, writing our own lines with God pushed to the margins and ourselves at the centre.

Human sin is the ultimate cause of all that spoils life on earth, leading to the oppression, injustice and warfare which blight the lives of millions. But the impact of sin is also seen very close to home. Why is it that Christmas is one of the most stressful periods of the year? Even at this time of ‘peace and good will’, we aren’t able to suppress our selfishness and find it almost impossible to get on with those we love most.

Sin isn’t just a problem for other people; it infects us all and destroys the perfect world God made. It is surely no surprise that the Bible says he is angry with us. A just God who cares about right and wrong can’t just ignore our sin; he must punish it. The punishment we all deserve is eternal separation from him.

In his justice God must punish, but in his great love he longs to forgive us. That’s why he sent Jesus to earth on the first Christmas Day: to rescue us so that we could be his friends again. Jesus lived a perfect life. He was the one man who ever lived who did not deserve to face the punishment of death and separation from God. But he willingly obeyed his heavenly Father, and stood in for sinful humanity when he died on the cross.

Jesus took the punishment we deserved, so we needn’t face it. If we trust in him, we can be sure that the price has been paid for all our sins and we are completely accepted by God, not because of anything we’ve done, but because of Jesus’s death in our place. We needn’t fear the day when Christ returns to judge the world, but can instead look forward to joining him in the perfect new creation he will establish.

This is a much-reduced extract from a new evangelistic booklet, Christmas in Three Words, published by The Good Book Company (http://www.thegoodbook.com).

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Christmas in Three Words, Pt 2

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Pastor Andrew

2. Christmas is joyful: God really cares

Christmas is not just historical; it’s also joyful. An angel, who had been sent by God, announced the birth of Jesus to some shepherds saying: ‘I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people’. But what is the joyful message of Christmas?

Christmas is a natural time for us to look back on the year that has passed. Perhaps it has been a difficult one for you and God has felt a million miles away. You may be able to identify with the words of Sting’s song, ‘O my God’:

Everyone I know is lonely
And God’s so far away
And my heart belongs to no one,
So now sometimes I pray
Please take the space between us
And fill it up some way.

The great news is that God did exactly that on the first Christmas Day: he filled up the space between him and us. We still may not understand why there is so much suffering in the world, but at least we can be sure that God is not indifferent to it. He didn’t simply send his condolences by long-distance telephone call; he got involved by sending his own Son to be born on earth.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Christmas in Three Words, Pt 1

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Pastor Andrew

1. Christmas is historical: it really happened

Many people think of Jesus in the same category as Santa, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and the flying snowman. We’ve known the story of his birth in the manger since childhood. We may have believed in it then, but now that we’ve reached the adult world of harsh reality, don’t we have to face facts and accept that, just as Father Christmas doesn’t really live in Lapland, so Jesus wasn’t really born in a manger?

No! The Bible insists that Jesus is not just a mythical character; he really existed. The best way to find out more about him is to read one of the gospels in the New Testament of the Bible. They were all written within a few decades of the events they describe and take great care to record accurate history.

Luke, for example, begins his Gospel by describing the efforts he has taken to ensure he has got his facts right: ‘carefully investigating everything’ and receiving his information from ‘eyewitnesses’.

The New Testament is not a myth or fantasy; it’s history. Jesus really was born in a stable in Bethlehem. He then grew up to become the most remarkable man the world has ever seen. One writer has put it well:

‘I’m far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever sailed, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon earth as has that one solitary life.’

There has never been anyone else like Jesus. He lived a life of astonishing humility, kindness and compassion. He loved everyone: rich and poor, male and female, Jew and Gentile. He taught as no one else has ever taught. Although he was an unschooled carpenter from an obscure part of the Roman Empire, his words still captivate the minds of millions 2,000 years after he lived on earth. And he performed extraordinary miracles, which even his enemies couldn’t deny. He just said the word and the blind saw, the lame walked and the dead were raised.

But, despite all the good he did, the religious establishment felt threatened by him and persuaded the Roman authorities to have him crucified when he was still only in his early 30s. If that was where the story ended, his brief life would have been largely forgotten by now, but he didn’t stay in the tomb. God raised him from the dead and he appeared to many people. This was no ordinary man! And he is not a mythical or fictional character. Christmas is historical: it really happened!

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Christmas Thoughts

Posted on December 19, 2011 by Pastor Andrew

The sign the Angels point to is this baby placed in a feeding trough wrapped up in rags — rags which might be for babies, or for the wounded. Maybe for the dead.

So that’s the sign at Christmas — the sign at the birth of Christ: there’s a baby born not in a temple or a castle or some lofty estate, but born so low as to be born with the poorest of the poor, in a stable among animals. And his garments are not fine cloth or soft linens: they’re rags that are only good enough for a baby’s back-end business or to wrap the sick and dying in.

So what to think of this? Here are three things to think about as you get on with your Christmas:

1. In that sign, it is clear that God is with us.

Look: that’s the ultimate promise YHVH makes to Israel — when the savior is born, he will be “Emmanuel – God with us.” And the Angels point out that the sign to the Shepherds is that this child is born of no account at all — above no one in the world. This wouldn’t be so true if Jesus had been born in Solomon’s courts — because as the Prince of the nation, he would be above so many and unreachable by them.

But here is the child in the manger — who the writer of Hebrews says is our high priest who is like us in every way, and still did not sin. He’s not just “for us” in some divine way: he is like us and is with us is a way which someone who is pandered to could never be.

2. In that sign, it is clear that God loves us.

Now think about this: Jesus didn’t just give up his bedroom to be with us. Jesus gave up heaven to be with us — and he was willing to give up everything he deserved in Heaven to come and be born in a stable so that he could be with us.”

You know: Jesus gave up Heaven for a stable so that, as he said to Peter and the boys, he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. For us.

That’s actually how we know what love is: the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

3. In that sign, God clears up everything He has been saying for the past 2 or 3 millennia.

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son — the one who is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

You know: God said a lot of things in the Old Testament. I know you know that because you probably haven’t read them all because it’s so much. It’s more than War and Peace. It’s more than The Stand. And you’d think after saying all that God would be like, “Geez — what more can I say than to you I have said?” But no: God instead makes everything He said come true in the birth of a child in a barn because there was no room at the Inn.

All the ideas of blessing: rolled up in swaddling clothes.

All the ideas about being chosen by God: laying in a manger.

All those judgments and warnings: now in the hands of a mother who admitted she didn’t understand these things, but submitted to them and considered them in her heart.

All the promises: in poverty, to the least of these, with the least of these.

All the power: not considering equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but rather, made nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.

Here in the manger is the very clarification of all God meant — because he is here in this world as it is created.

This only scratches the surface. You could probably consider the sign of the baby in the manger every day this year and come up with something new to rejoice over, but we only have a few days until Christmas. All I’m saying is that the Angels didn’t think that their appearance was as spectacular as that sign. Maybe we should consider it more deeply this season.

Posted by Frank Turk at http://teampyro.blogspot.com/

Posted in Biblical Studies, Theology | Comments Off