Spirit Filled Puritan

This is a repost of an email sent to me by my pastor in preparation for communion on Sunday.

This Sunday we will be remembering the Savior with communion. Why do we do this?  Take a few moments to consider the words of Richard Alleine, a Puritan writer:

“Though the gospel may still be received as an undoubted and unquestionable truth, though the evidence of its truth may be so clear that we cannot contradict or question it, yet the weight of it may not be so much felt upon our hearts; the truths believed may not be so much minded , nor so thoroughly considered as to leave any powerful impressions of them upon our hearts. Those great things, the worth and value of a soul, the dreadfulness of losing a soul, the danger that they are in of losing their souls, the excellency and necessity of Christ, the eternal weight of glory, the everlasting vengeance of a God against the unrighteousness of men, though all these things be believed and acknowledged, yet they may not for the time be so duly minded and meditated on; they may be so much out of our eye, out of our thoughts, that the sense of them, and the efficacy of that sense, may seem even to be utterly lost. Friends, it is not the being of these great things, no, nor the bare believing that they are, but the minding and frequent considering of them, the having that height and depth, that life and death in our eye, that will affect and work upon the heart; and Christians, through their own carelessness and heedlessness, may have even lost the sight of both of heaven and hell. Things present may have so filled and overpowered their hearts, as to put things to come quite out of mind; the heart may be so bewitched by this present world, so surrounded with a crowd of carnal pleasures and delights, so swallowed up of worldly cares and contrivances, so intent upon our worldly business and commodity, that we may hereupon drive so heavily on in the matters of eternity, as if we had forgotten that we had a Christ or a soul to be minded.”

From pp.10-11, A Rebuke to Backsliders and a Spur for Loiterers

You have to love the way they name their books :{))

Lord, help me to remember the Savior, to never forget,

Help us Lord as we prepare to remember,

Tom

This is volume 36 in a series of Lenten reflections based on “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

 “At the heart of Christianity is the truth that we are forgiven and accepted by God, not because we have done good works, but to make us able and zealous to do them. The Bible says, “[God] saved us . . . not because of our works” (2 Timothy 1:9). Good deeds are not the foundation of our acceptance, but the fruit of it.  Christ suffered and died not because we presented to him good works, but he died “to purify for himself a people . . . zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14).  This is the meaning of grace. This is why the Bible says, “By grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Christ suffered and died so that good works would be the effect, not the cause, of our acceptance.   Not surprisingly, then, the next sentence says, “For we are created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). That is, we are saved for good works, not by good works.    Christian purity is not the mere avoidance of evil, but the pursuit of good.   There are reasons why Jesus paid the infinite price to produce our passion for good deeds. He gave the main reason in these words: “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). And what are these “good works”? Without limiting their scope, the Bible means mainly helping people in urgent need, especially those who possess least and suffer most. For example, the  Bible says, “Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need” (Titus 3:14). Christ died to make us this kind of people—passionate to help the poor and the perishing. It is the best life, no matter what it costs us in this world: They get help, we get joy, God gets glory.”

[He] gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.  Titus 2:14

As I read this section, I am reminded that my works are truly only “good” when my motives are pure.   Yes, I can do good works for the poor, the unfortunate, or people in need.  However the question is why am I doing them?   Is it because at certain times of the year (i.e. Christmas) the need is more publicly highlighted?  Is it because they help rid me of some guilt?  Do they make me feel better?  Do I want people to see me doing them?  Do I need them to earn some points to graduate high school,  get a recommendation or possibly a promotion?   Do I think God will be pleased with my actions?  All-to-frequently, my answer to these is a resounding “YES”.  And in that “YES” lies the problem.   In many cases, God’s agenda is not my agenda.   Yes, the good works  I perform benefit others outwardly.  However my real motivation is they inwardly benefit me.  “I” am the reason for my good works; not God.   However, God’s Holy Spirit regularly convicts me of my selfish motives and redirects my heart towards God’s glory.  I am thankful I have the Spirit to convict and hold me accountable.   Without that work of both His administering the grace of initiative and service along with the grace of conviction, I’d be wallowing in the mire of my own selfishness, continuously.   

Questions:  Did you realize that one of the many roles of the Holy Spirit is to realign the motives of the heart?  The Holy Spirit not only empowers Christians to do “good things” but He is key in straightening our “bent frames”; our tendency towards self-centered hearts.   Is your heart yielded to the Holy Spirit or do you operate autonomously?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

This is volume 35 in a series of Lenten reflections based on “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

“God’s design for marriage in the Bible pictures the husband loving his wife the way Christ loves his people, and the wife responding to her husband the way Christ’s people should respond to him. This picture was in God’s mind when he sent Christ into the world. Christ came for his bride and died for her to display the way marriage was meant to be. God’s idea for marriage preceded the union of Adam and Eve and the coming of Christ. We know this because when Christ’s apostle explained the mystery of marriage, he reached back to the beginning of the Bible and quoted Genesis 2:24, “A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Then in the next sentence he interpreted what he had just quoted: “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32).   That means that in God’s mind marriage was designed in the beginning to display Christ’s relationship to his people. The reason marriage is called a “mystery” is that this aim for marriage was not clearly revealed until the coming of Christ. Now we see  that marriage is meant to make Christ’s love for his people more visible in the world.   Since this was in God’s mind from the beginning, it was also in Christ’s mind when he faced death. He knew that among the many effects of his suffering was this: making the deepest meaning of marriage plain. All his sufferings were meant to be a message especially to husbands: This is how every husband should love his wife.  Even though God did not aim, in the beginning, for marriages to be miserable, many are. That’s what sin does. It makes us treat each other badly. Christ suffered and died to change that. Wives have their responsibility in this change. But Christ gives a special   responsibility to husbands. That’s why the Bible says, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25).”

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Ephesians 5:25

As I read this I am recalling a a message from Dr. Wayne Grudem on the differences between men and women and why it matters.  Dr. Grudem made it plain that this verse was a pivotal one in the understanding of why men and women were made different yet have equal value and worth.  Like much of the Old Testament, the revelation of Messiah (Christ) was in the form of types and shadows.  Marriage and the union of a man and wife, the Apostle Paul points out, happened to be one of many.  Marriage mirrors God and relationship between the Father, Son and Spirit.  It is meant to show the uniqueness of individuality, the importance of  differences in roles and the joy of unity.  The picture John Piper uses is poignant.  We talk allot about role models in our culture.  Sports icons, politicians, heroes, etc.  Yet, what Paul says here is profound.  Our marriages are images of Christ’s death.  That fact makes marriage more important than just what’s at stake in the relationship between man and woman.

Questions:  Did you realize that marriage is more than just a formality or status but that it serves an eternal purpose?  How will Paul’s description of the purpose of marriage change your relationship with your spouse and children.  If you are not married, how does this fact affect your choice of a mate?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“There is an explicit paradox in this verse. “I have been crucified,” but “I now live.” But you might say, “That’s not paradoxical, it’s just sequential. First I died with Christ; then I was raised with him and now live.” True. But what about these even more paradoxical words: “It is no longer I who live,” yet “I now live”? Do I live or don’t I?  Paradoxes are not contradictions. They just sound that way.   The aim of the death of Christ was to take our “old self” with him into the grave and put an end to it. “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to  nothing” (Romans 6:6). If we trust Christ, we are united to him, and God counts our old self as dying with Christ.  The purpose was the raising of a new self.  So who is the new self? What’s different about these two selves? Am I still me? The verse at the beginning of this chapter describes the new self in two ways: One way is almost unimaginable; the other is plain. First, it says that the new self is Christ living in me: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” I take this to mean that the new self is defined by Christ’s presence and help at all times. He is always imparting life to me.   He is always strengthening me for what he calls me to do.   That’s what a Christian is. The other way it speaks of the new self is this: It lives by trusting Christ moment by moment. “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Without this second description of the new self, we might wonder what our part is in experiencing Christ’s daily help. Now we have the answer: faith. The proof that he will be with us and will help us do this is the fact that he suffered and died to make it happen.”

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

As I reflect here, the Apostle Paul really accentuates the meaning of faith in this passage.   To Paul, faith was not just believing with one’s mind.  Faith was a bodily thing.  It was a putting off and putting on.  It was putting to death something old and living in something new.   It was not just redressing or adding an accessory to what he already had.  As John Murray, the great 20th Century Theologian put it:

“the most characteristic act of faith [is the] engagement of person to person, the engagement of the sinner as lost to the person of the Saviour able and willing to save. Faith, after all, is not belief of propositions of truth respecting the Saviour, however essential an ingredient of faith such belief is. Faith is trust in a person, the person of Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of the lost. It is entrustment of ourselves to Him. It is not simply believing Him; it is believing in Him and on Him.”

I was once a collector of Christian things and faith was part of my collection.  It was in my bag of essentials and I pulled it out when I needed it.  It was influential but not transformational.  However, over the years, God has been kind to show me that true faith is not something I conveniently use to convince myself that I am a Christian or “I can do anything”.  Faith itself, disconnected from an object and not active, is no more powerful than saying “I think I can, I think I can”.  However, faith “in and on” the only one who can save sinners is infinitely powerful because its object is infinitely powerful.  Faith and the message of the Gospel binds me to the one who saved me, namely Christ. 

Questions:   Why is our experience of faith today so radically different than what Paul describes?  Could it be our definition of faith has changed?  How do you define faith and its application?  Is it consistent with Paul’s definition?

John Piper quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

John Murray quote from “Redemption Accomplished and Applied”

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

This is volume 34 in a series of Lenten reflections based on “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

“This seems over the top. Boast only in the cross! Really? Literally only in the cross? Even the Bible talks about other things to boast in. Boast in the glory of God (Romans 5:2).  boast in our tribulations (Romans 5:3). Boast in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). Boast in the people of Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:19). What does “only” mean here?  It means that all other boasting should still be a boasting in the cross. If we boast in the hope of glory, that very boast should be a boast in the cross of Christ. If we boast in the people of Christ, that very boasting should be a boasting in the cross.  Boasting only in the cross means only the cross enables every other legitimate boast, and every  legitimate boast should therefore honor the cross. Why? Because every good thing—indeed, even every bad thing that God turns for good—was obtained for us by the cross of Christ.  Therefore all our boasting in these things should be a boasting in the cross of Christ.”

Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the  world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)

This verse is so, so important to anyone who claims to be a Christian.  In it, is contained the preservation of the grace of God in all things.  It takes away my ability to take pride in myself or my accomplishments.  It removes absolutely every possible thing that I could claim I did that made me different from everyone else.   I think most Christians miss this point.   Christians are not Christians because of something they did like cleaning up their life, going to church, saying prayers, picketing people they disagree with, etc.  Christians are in fact Christians because God loved them in spite of their utter sinfulness, arrogance, pride, self-righteousness and sin.  God had mercy on them so that they could not and ultimately would not be arrogant, prideful and self-righteous.  A person claiming to be Christian can not say he or she is any better than any other human being who lives on this earth.  There is no justification for it.    Doing so only ridicules the love of the God they claim to profess.  An arrogant, prideful, self-righteous Christian is an oxymoron. 

Questions:   Have you ever thought yourself better than someone else because of something you did?   How did you justify it?  What in that act separated you from a person who didn’t do the same thing?  Is it possible that another person could do something better than you did?  What would that make you?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“It troubles a lot of people that Christ died to exalt Christ. Boiled down to its essence, 2 Corinthians 5:15 says Christ died for us that we might live for him. In other words, he died for us so that we make much of him. Bluntly, Christ died for Christ.  The reason this troubles people is that it sounds vain. It doesn’t seem like a loving thing to do.  So it seems to turn the suffering of Christ into the very opposite of what the Bible says it is, namely, the supreme act of love. But in fact it’s both. Christ’s dying for his own glory and his dying to show love are not only both true, they are both the same.  Christ is unique. No one else can act this way and call it love.  Christ is the only human in the universe who is also God and therefore infinitely valuable. He is infinitely beautiful in all his  moral perfections. He is infinitely wise and just and good and strong.   To see him and know him is more satisfying than having all that earth can offer.  Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7-8).   The most loving prayer Jesus ever prayed was this: “Father, I desire  that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where  I am, to see my glory” (John 17:24). For this Christ died. This is love—suffering to give us everlasting enjoyment, namely himself.”

He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:15

Reflecting on this  fact I recall  reading this verse years ago and thinking how Jesus literally “served” his enemies by transforming them into loving servants of Him.   This was not a vindictive act but as John Piper says, a loving act.  Essentially he died so that his enemies could see him for who he was…more glorious, more beautiful, more satisfying, more valuable than anything the world can offer.  Personally, without this loving act, I would not have seen him this way.  Only after this change was I able to see there was more to life than work and play.  Life was not my little world of routine, with its wants and desires for food, comfort and security. “ I” was not the reason for my own existence.  When God opened my mind [spirit] to the Gospel message, it became clear that I was very weak and small and He was infinitely fulfilling.  My insignificance was contrasted against His majesty.  Yet, because of the love shown by God through Christ’s sacrifice, God shares with sinners a new vision, a new reality and a new destiny with those who receive His Son by faith. 

Questions:   Have you ever considered that Jesus died not just so that 10, 20, 50 or 100 years down the road you could go to heaven?  Have you considered that eternal salvation has a present component, a future component and an everlasting component?  How does 2 Corinthians 5:15 fit into the belief that you can go to church, pray a prayer, or sign a card or walk an aisle,  continue to live selfishly, and insist on claiming the name of Christ?

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“When Christ died for us, we died with him. God looked on us who believe as united to Christ. His death for our sin was our death in him.   But sin was not the only reality that killed Jesus and us. So did the law of God. When we break the law by sinning, the law sentences us to death.  If there were no law, there would be no punishment. “For . . .where there is no law there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15).  But “whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that . . . the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Romans 3:19).  There was no escape from the curse of he law. It was just; we were guilty. There was only one way to be free: Someone must pay the penalty. That’s why Jesus came: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).   This is why the Bible so clearly teaches that getting right with God is not based on law-keeping. “By works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20). “A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16). There is no hope of getting right with God by law-keeping. The only hope is the blood and righteousness of Christ, which is ours by faith alone. This is why the Bible says that the new way of obedience is fruit-bearing, not law-keeping. “You . . . have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).  We have died to law-keeping so that we might live to fruit-bearing. Fruit grows naturally on a tree. If the tree is good, the fruit will be good. And the tree, in this case, is a living relationship of love to Jesus Christ. For this he died. Now he bids us come: “Trust me.” Die to the law, that you might bear the fruit of love.”

You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. (Romans 7:4)

Reflecting on this  fact brings to mind the futility of self-righteousness.  If I can’t keep God’s given law perfectly, why would I deceive myself into thinking I can invent some new laws, that I can keep and then use them as my justification for God’s approval?  I think about how preposterous this is.  If I was guilty of going 55 MPH in a 35 MPH zone and I tell the judge at traffic court that I have my own set of speed limits that I feel I can keep better and I always obey them, how far am I going to get with him.  I can hear the gavel now:  GUILTY, PAY THE FINE PLUS COURT COSTS.   However, that’s what I used to do when I chose which of God’s laws I would follow, and which ones I would ignore.  I even went so far as to replace some of them that either didn’t fit my lifestyle or were just too hard.  Bear in mind, none of God’s Law has been replaced.  It’s demands are on all humanity and the consequences of not following, perfectly, are absolute.  However, the good news is that I have been freed from those consequences by grace.  Not that I brag about this because I sin every day, constantly.  However, God in his grace has revealed the remedy for this, through faith in Jesus Christ.    God is good in that he shows us that faith is real when we see his blossoms turn to fruit in our lives. 

Questions:   Have you ever considered that replacing God’s law and following an alternative set of standards is futile?   This is what the Pharisee’s did.  What motivates you to do this?   Is it guilt or sorrow or regret?   Does doing it make you happy?  God provided a solution for our guilt, sorrow and regret through the death of Jesus.  All he asks of us is to look back at our lives in repentance and to look forward, in faith to Christ.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

“Our sin ruins us in two ways. It makes us guilty before God, so that we are under his  just condemnation; and it makes us ugly in our behavior, so that we disfigure the image of  God we were meant to display. It damns us with guilt, and it enslaves us to lovelessness.
The blood of Jesus frees us from both miseries. It satisfies God’s righteousness so that our sins can be justly forgiven. And it defeats the power of sin to make us slaves to lovelessness. Sin is such a powerful influence in our lives that we must be liberated by God’s power, not by our willpower. But since we are sinners we must ask, is the power of God directed toward our liberation or our condemnation? That’s where the suffering of Christ comes in. When Christ died to remove our condemnation, he opened, as it were, the valve of heaven’s mighty mercy to flow on behalf of our liberation from the power of sin. In other words, rescue from the guilt of sin and the wrath of God had to precede rescue from the power of sin by the mercy of God.   This is why the Bible can make the amazing promise: “Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). Being “under grace” secures the omnipotent power of God to destroy our lovelessness (not all at once, but progressively). We are not passive in the defeat of our selfishness, but neither do we provide the decisive power. It is God’s grace.”

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.  Revelation1:5-6

Reflecting on this  fact brings to mind a picture of a drowning man.  Fallen off a ship in a storm, he is whipped by the churning, bitterly cold sea.  He has the will to survive, the strength of an athlete and the training of a seaman.  He’s a good swimmer but even if he were Michael Phelps, eventually the wrath and fury of the waves will claim him.   This man’s rescue requires more than another man with better skills to save him.  He needs to be plucked from the ravages of the waves and taken away if he is to live.  That’s a visual of what God did for those who would believe in Jesus.  Sin is a churning sea of fury.  We all choose to dive in and swim.  We even deceive ourselves that we can safely navigate its waters.  However it will consume us in our deception.  God doesn’t calm the waters so we can swim to shore of our own strength and have another go of it tomorrow.  No, he plucks us out and He takes us to safety.  We are no longer slaves to the waves.

Questions:   Have you ever considered that sin is a raging sea consuming all that are swimming in it?  Have you tried to fight against sin with your own power through self-help books, confidence builders, little lists of do’s and don’ts, attempting to keep the 10 commandments, by going to church or some other self-designated method?   Why not try the only way God has prescribed for doing so; by grace through faith in Jesus.

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.

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“Strange as it may sound, Christ’s dying in our place and for our sins means that we died. You would think that having a substitute die in your place would mean that you escape death. And, of course, we do escape death—the eternal death of endless misery and separation from God. Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish” (John 10:28). “Everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:26). The death of Jesus does indeed mean that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  But there is another sense in which we die precisely because Christ died in our place and for our sins. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die . . .” (1 Peter 2:24). He died that we might live; and he died that we might die.  When Christ died, I, as a believer in Christ, died with him. The Bible is clear: “We have been united with him in a death like his” (Romans 6:5). “One has died for all, therefore all have died” (2 Corinthians 5:14).  Faith is the evidence of being united to Christ in this profound way. Believers “have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).  My sin brought Jesus to the grave and brought me there with him. Faith sees sin as murderous. It killed Jesus, and it killed me. Therefore, becoming a Christian means death to sin. The old self that loved sin died with Jesus.”

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, hat we might die to sin and live to  righteousness.  (1 Peter 2:24)

Reflecting on this  reminds me to the paradox of living for self, being ultimate death but dying to self being eternal life.   God tells us that His ways confound the wise among men.  They make no sense.   Yet, millions are witness to the power of a changed life through the grace of God and the good news of the gospel.  I myself can understand this.  I was once spiritually dead but physically alive.  When I was made spiritually alive, I saw things a new light.  It was not that “someone convinced me” or that I finally “figured it out” or “got religion” or “needed an opiate” to numb my pain.  I can’t really explain it but spiritual things of which I was uninterested in, became interesting.   My paths began to cross with people who experienced the same thing.  My old selfish attitudes began to diminish.  Everything changed.   Christ became real.  God invaded my life from all angles.  

Questions:   Have you ever considered why some people just walk away from things to serve God?  Has God called you to die to self and live for him, by grace through faith in Christ? 

Quote from “The 50 Reasons Jesus Came to Die”.

Questions and reflections by me.

Picture – The cross at Mount Erebus, Antarctica, commemorating the 1979 Air New Zealand Crash near Mount Erebus.