50 reasons why Jesus died, 3/5

Part 3. To see why I am doing this 5 part post series please see here

Check the short free e-book out which is what my reflections are based on ”The Passion of Jesus Christ – Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die”

 

Our great God while we were ‘enemies’ (Rom 5:10) made the way for us to reconciled to Him. We who were hostile to Him, He saw fit to set his love on and to meet the demands that our sin required! Not only this,; once reconciled and smiled on, we are brought into the house, allowed access to know God. He has both made the peace and carried us into the eternal house!

 

‘But what is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in one thing: God himself. All the words of the gospel lead to him, or they are not gospel. For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from **** and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family but not in his arms.’*

 

He has brought us to God and in this selfsame process we are made to belong to Him, to be owned by Him. Brought into His house and now under his loving governance, the like where we are made to do what we were created for, to love and to honour Him!

Now in the house we are welcomed and beckoned into its most secret parts, the parts which formerly we were forbidden to enter because of our sin. Now. With the reconciliation brought about by the washing away of our sin we can enter the holy place. Hebrews 10:19-20

 

Now with the blessed friendship, lordship and adoption we are made to come and meet God through the person of His Son, for now ‘there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Timothy 2:5). He is the meeting place, he is the new and everlasting temple.

 ‘Do we want to see God? Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Do we want to receive God? Jesus says, “Whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matthew 10:40). Do we want to have the presence of God in worship? The Bible says, “Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23). Do we want to honor the Father? Jesus says, “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (John 5:23)’**

Once and for all he has made sacrifice for sin and we are at peace, as stated. Reconciled and brought in. He is not like the priests of old who had to continually sacrifice animals,  now we have the permanent blessed sacrifice for sin, he did ‘this once for all’ (Hebrews 7:27)

Jesus is a great High Priest. He now is the ultimate, sympathetic and understanding High Priest, so we can come before Him we assurance!

‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.’ (Hebrews 4:15-16)

 

 

No parental, generational or ancestral bondage, or vain “inherited” lifestyle can hold us from the riches and blessings of God himself. Jesus has freed us from the meaninglessness of it all, to bring us to a better place – to a place of God!

God’s mercy and power are now at work to free us from the slavery we were born into. A slavery to commit sin and to do nothing else. The work of the Holy Spirit has ben opened, the blood of Christ has opened the gate of mercy and compassion and sanctification.

 

And finally his death means that I die! Upon that cross as he died for the sake of my sin, my old self was nailed to that cross. The ‘old man’ was buried because He took him away! Now I can live as He lives and that unto to righteousness and to glory!

So we have seen we have been reconciled to God, brought into the most secret places of the house, because of the perfect High Priest by whom we are made whole and made new to live for God!

 

P

 

*page 62

**page 69

50 reasons why Jesus died, 2/5

Part 2 – to see why I am doing this check the little intro here

Check the short free e-book out \”The Passion of Jesus Christ – Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die\”

Not only did his death meet the just demands of a holy and just God, but in his righteousness we were then made righteous. And so the judge not only declared us not guilty – but then gave us an infinite amount of money to start a new life. His righteousness imparted to me!

Who can condemn those whom God has saved? – none! For by uniting with Christ ‘there is therefore now no condemnation’ (Romans 8:1). ‘Faith in Christ unites us to Christ so that his death becomes our death and his perfection becomes our perfection. Christ becomes our punishment (which we don’t have to bear) and our perfection (which we cannot perform).’*

In Christ, we no longer have to perform any ritual to make us right in the sight of the Almighty Creator. In this marvellous transaction he has given us faith and moreover given us the ability to do what we could not, to keep us faithful for eternity! In his sight we are made now Perfect. Blameless. Holy. Yet in practice we make it our aim to be ever more like Him…since we are his and he is ours.

And now in full knowledge of a clear conscience before God we serve Him and Him alone! Before we thought ourselves unworthy to know God – and rightly too – but now his blood has made us worthy and cleansed our conscience to serve!

‘He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?’ (Romans 8:32)

Based on the stupendous magnanimous gift of His Son……there is nothing He will not give us that we need to love and honour Him and to remain in His joy!

Soon He shall take all disease and pain away. All mess. All corruption that the world has fallen into will be rid and a glorious new creation with glorified bodies will emerge.

What’s more the – creme de la creme – he has provided for us eternal life! Though faith in the Son men can live and never die!

And so finally we are also then ‘delivered’ from ‘this present evil age’ (Galatians 1:4). The foolishness of the age we live in – we are loosed from it! No longer do we walk as servants of Satan but we live free in Christ to know Him and His, infinite. Superb. Splendid. Immaculate wisdom.

‘What then is the wisdom of God in this age? It is the great liberating death of Jesus Christ. The early followers of Jesus said, “We preach Christ crucified . . . the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24).’***

P

* a quote from page 42

*** a quote from page 59

50 reasons why Jesus died, 1/5

Over the course of this week I shall aim to re-post and post new reflections/summaries on John Piper’s book ’50 Reasons why Jesus Died’. For a short pre-amble to this series please see my earlier post here: http://somemusings.com/category/50-reasons-why-jesus-came-to-die/

He was the wrath bearer, who by God’s own love was humbled in obedience to be raised by the Father as a public display.

He died to save those who were His hostile enemies (that’s grace) because he loved us and so gave himself for us – who is the us? – all those who would believe in him, and call upon him for salvation!

He ‘nailed to the cross’ all the records that stood against us, for: ‘There is no salvation by balancing the records. There is only salvation by canceling records.’* He paid a ransom that none could pay, so that men may be made right with a perfectly just God. Sins forgiven, soul cleansed, “peace with God” is our clarion call!

‘If we believe in Christ, God no longer holds our sins against us’** – we are forgiven through the death of Christ! By identifying with him and being ‘buried’ with him we are then ‘resurrected’ with him – since we are now right in the sight of God. We are now declared in the courts of heaven to be – innocent! Forgiveness came and then we were made innocent in his sight. ‘We have now been justified by his blood.’ Romans 5:9.

 

P

* a quote from page 33.

** a quote from page 36

The Passion of Jesus Christ – 50 Reasons why he came to die

The life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most profound, and centre point moment of all human history. An overexaggerated claim? No, not at all. For it is the time when God showed Himself, the great and holy creator stepped into time, in his great and wonderful love and made the way to save a doomed race.

Over the course of this week, otherwise known as “Holy Week”, I am going to post some reflections on a little free e-book ‘The Passion of Jesus Christ – 50 Reasons why he came to die’ by Pastor John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the US.

Each day will consist of a quick fire, note taking review and exploration of 10 chapters or reasons.

10 a day = 50! – as if you didn’t already know that!

The book can be found here to download as a PDF for free. Each chapter, or ‘reason’, is about 2 pages long, so it’s something very digestible, yet it contains the profound truths of the reasons why, 2000 years ago, on a hill just outside of modern-day Jerusalem, the Son of God died to reconcile men and women to God.

A link to the book is here: http://bit.ly/elA9uK

I strongly recommend you to take a look, as my posts may not make proper sense sometimes but reading what I am reading will help; but of course if you have any questions please, please, please feel free to leave a (wholesome) comment or email me at pjmthethird@gmail.com and I will get back to you.

God bless you

P

Happy to help!

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For 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. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
(Romans 5:6-9 ESV)