Grace Blog

Some Christians prepare for Easter by celebrating Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday (February 22, 2012.) This year, we would like to suggest a book for you to read: Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross edited by Nancy Guthrie. There is no better way to prepare for Easter (April 8) than to remind ourself of the passion and power of the foundation of the Gospel; and this little book will assist you in doing just that. Since the chapters are short, we recommend that you try reading one chapter a day, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Right now the book is 50% off at the Westminster book store. You can also order it through Amazon (a Kindle version is not available). There will also be a few copies that can be purchased in the church foyer.

Merritt Anderson is a friend that I admire and respect - he has spoken extensively about living in the gospel every day. But I still struggle to understand how to practically live every day in my belief of the good news of Jesus dying in my place, for my sin, and granting eternal life. I understand that because of my belief in the gospel, one day heaven, and not hell will be my home. But all of that is in the future—or is it? Maybe that is the source of my struggle. Maybe the good news of the gospel is as much for the present as the future?

I took a couple of days off this week to go turkey hunting with my dad and my son. Sitting in the woods gives me a lot of time to read my Bible and think. I struggle to realize I was moved from one Kingdom to another—from Satan to Christ, from death to life, upon believing in Christ to be my only savior. I know with my head that I was placed into Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day when my redemption will be made complete. But I forget that my redemption has already begun. I am already in Christ and I am already in Christ’s kingdom. Eternal life has already begun! So, yes, the good news is both for now and the future! Yet, while this good news is unrealized in my physical body, I must take it by faith. Perhaps that is why over and over the Apostles kept reminding us that the “justified ones must continue to live by faith” (Rom.1:17; Gal. 2:20; Col.2:6; Heb. 11:6). I reread The Revelation To John to remind me of my future hope—although it may have distracted me from a successful hunt, it encouraged me to live by faith in the gospel until then!

On Easter, we often stop and remember the historical events of Jesus’ resurrection from death. However, we often don’t consider why God the Father put His Son, Jesus, on the cross or why he had to raise Jesus from the dead. Buried in the Scripture among the many reasons why God raised Jesus is one that is seldom unearthed—“Jesus was raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25).

Jesus is the one who was delivered up to death. Isaiah the prophet foretold that the messianic Servant would “pour out his life unto death” (Isa 53:12). Yet he was “raised to life for our justification.” God’s entire redemptive plan is summarized in Romans 4:25. Christ died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. The two are inseparably bound together. Robert Mounce in his commentary on Romans said it best, “Without his death there would be no basis for acquittal. Without his resurrection there would be no proof of the redemptive reality of his death.” Jesus Christ, crucified and raised to life, is God the Father’s gracious provision for our sins. The simplicity of the message makes it clear for all who will hear. The power of the message is experienced by those who receive it in faith.

Jesus often spoke of forgiveness using the metaphor of a monetary debt that was canceled. This is precisely His point in one of His parables where He compares our great debt to God as being “forgiven” which should compel us to forgive the much lesser debt owed to us by our neighbor. Because our modern language of forgiveness seldom compares forgiveness to debt, we misunderstand just how costly forgiveness really is to the one who forgives. Humans can choose to forgive a debt without payment. God cannot. Because of God’s holiness, He cannot forgive our debt freely until the price of our sin debt has been satisfied. The price that was paid was the blood of God in Christ on the cross. Many old preachers, theologians and hymn writers understood this—they spoke of the “satisfaction” of the sin debt as paid by Christ on the cross as the reason why we should worship and celebrate the cross. As Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend wrote, “Til’ on that cross/ As Jesus died/ the wrath of God/ Was satisfied/ Here in the love of Christ I stand.”