day no. 16,474: where misery pools, mercy reigns

The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. - Isaiah 53:6

“It is the most grievous sentence of the three, but it overflows with comfort. Strange is it that where misery was concentrated mercy reigned; where sorrow reached her climax weary souls find rest. The Saviour bruised is the healing of bruised hearts. See how the lowliest penitence gives place to assured confidence through simply gazing at Christ on the cross!” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening 

Where misery pools, mercy reigns

2 Corinthians 5:21

For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Where sin was concentrated, Righteousness was executed.

day no. 13,408: working to wash one's soul

Philippians 3:7-9

7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 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 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Your gain cannot wash away your guilt.

In fact, if you present your gain to God as an explanation of why you ought to be welcomed into His presence, you will be turned away and found wanting.

The only righteousness that will suffice is the righteousness of Christ.

By His grace, He gladly and freely offers that to you.

day no. 13,399: guilty yet free to go‏

Romans 4:5

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness

God justifies the ungodly.  That is to say, He calls ungodly people "godly."

Is God wrong?

I mean it's like He is looking at white and calling it black, sweet and calling it sour, light and calling it dark, evil and calling it good.

He would be wrong if He hadn't done something. 

Romans 4:24-25

...God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

Because Jesus lived perfectly for us and died sacrificially for us and rose from the dead for us, God can rightly apply our sin to Him and His glory to us and is justified Himself in justifying the ungodly.

day no. 12,937: then the sons are free‏

Matthew 17:25b-26

When he went into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, “What do you think, Simon? Who do earthly kings collect tariffs or taxes from? From their sons or from strangers?”

²⁶ “From strangers,” he said.

“Then the sons are free,” Jesus told him.

We are born strangers to God. By nature, by choice, in fact and in act, we demonstrate that we are estranged from Him.

If we receive Jesus and believe in His Name, He provides the right for us to become children of God (John 1:12).

If you are not a child of God, He will collect taxes and tariffs from you. They will be required. And you will come up short. You don’t have enough bank to pay off the debt of sin you have accumulated.

If you are a child of God, you are no longer under any obligation to pay taxes and tariffs. Jesus paid them all.

You are debt-free.

It’s a tax-free holiday weekend forever for you.

If you are a son of God by faith in Christ, rejoice.

You are free!

Oh, praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!

day no. 12,874: no other reason at all... none.

Hebrews 2:11

Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

My friend Tim nailed it again when he wrote the following in response to the verse above:

"Christ can call me ‘brother’ because I am holy through Him. No other reason at all... none."

I love listening to people testify rightly with regard to who they are and who God is and how much greater and good and worthy of praise He becomes in their minds and hearts in dwelling upon these things.

day no. 12,797: very boldly by way of reminder‏

Romans 15:15-16

¹⁵ But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God ¹⁶ to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

I love Paul's word play here in suggesting that the Old Testament Levitical priesthood has now somehow been transformed into the priestly work of reminding people what Christ has done on their behalf.

Priests temporarily reconclied men to God, but only for a moment and only for sins, not sin.

Jesus' sacrifice was not just for the sins we have committed, but for sin itself.

We are not merely forgiven in Jesus for things we've done wrong or things we've failed to do right, we are forgiven for being the type of people who delight in doing wrong and delinquent in doing right.

Praise God for the Gospel and the priestly service of reminding others with boldness that it is in Christ alone that we have full freedom to live eternaly here and now.

day no. 12,777: can i get a witness?

John 2:24-25

²⁴ But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people ²⁵ and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

Hebrews 4:15

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.

If Jesus had found men He could trust, His death would have been unnecessary.
We would need only better programming or motivation.

But our problem was not one of being close but no cigar, but rather one more akin to being up a crick without a paddle.

Jesus knows the depths of depravity because He resisted them all.

He knows the darkness and despair of our condition because He lived among it without indulging it.

He NEVER sinned.

Not once.

May we too not entrust ourselves to men, but in faith entrust ourselves to Jesus.

the faith of a thief‏

Luke 23:32-43

³² Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. ³³ And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals,one on his right and one on his left. ³⁴ And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.³⁵ And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!”³⁶ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine ³⁷ and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” ³⁸ There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”

³⁹ One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”⁴⁰ But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?⁴¹ And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”⁴² And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”⁴³ And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

I never before realized the magnitude of the thief’s faith.

Both thieves/criminals were looking for salvation:

The first said, “Save yourself and us too!”

The second said, “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

The first thought salvation was through circumstances.

The second believed salvation was through Jesus.

The second criminal knew that he and Jesus and the other criminal were dying. He was under no delusion that they were going to survive this ordeal. His appeal was not be released from the penalty of his wrongdoing, but to be released from the eternal weight of his separation from Jesus. He acknowledged that Jesus was the only one dying that day without sin.

He believed Jesus was not dying, but becoming the King of the universe.

He believed in eternal life and both he and Jesus being somewhere soon once this death business was done. He believed Jesus would be there in power because of Who He was and is and was going to be ever after.

He believed that Jesus’ remembrance of him was more meaningful than being removed from the weight of his current circumstances.

He agreed with God that Jesus was good and he was not.

Three men died that day:

One died IN his sin.
One died TO his sin.
One died FOR sin.

jack bauer, billy bad apple-tastic!!!

John 10:18

“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

Jesus just said, “No one can kill Me without My permission.”

That not only is the single toughest thing I have ever heard anyone say, it is made even more so by the fact that He could cash that check. It wasn’t just a tough thing to say: it was a tough thing to do.

No one can choose without caveat the time and place and circumstances of their demise.

But if one could, they would not.

If you controlled that much, you would choose not to die.

 

Jesus DID control that much.

And He died.

On purpose.
With purpose.

In our place.

For our sin.
 

In our place.

For our lives.

let's meet in the middle‏

Compromise.

God does not do it.

You cannot meet Him halfway.

You will not reach God by climbing Jacob’s ladder anymore than you will build a Babel to the doorstep of Heaven.

Either He comes all the way down or we perish.

God will not meet you in the middle as though we and He are both a little off base and a reasonable compromise would be to find a center point, a “happy” medium as though robbing Jesus of some glory to cater to and exalt your depravity were a “happy” offer for God to receive from us.

Jesus does not meet us in the middle.

Praise God!

He comes all the way down to lift us all the way up.

We can only climb so far up.

Our paths do not cross as I climb and He descends.
Our paths lead down to the foot of the Cross after He goes all the way down.

There is no further down than Jesus bloodied on a tree becoming something altogether foreign to Him.

He took on an alien sin so that we could inherit an alien righteousness.

There is no middle in that.
There is no meeting to discuss that.

There is Jesus and Him crucified dead and buried and now risen from the grave.

the world did not know God through wisdom‏

We come hard-wired for Law.

We like being wise.

It is familiar to us.

We must receive the Gospel.

We do not like being fools.

It is foreign to us.

1 Corinthians 1:21

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

We know that wisdom is better than being foolish.

Everyone knows that.

But one man’s wisdom is another man’s folly.

So what is more accurate, then, to say is that we know that we like our wisdom better than other men’s folly.

By our wisdom, we frequently find ourselves faultless.

But by our wisdom, we do not find God.

We find God by repenting of our wisdom and embracing the foolishness of God in killing the Christ on our behalf.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.

It is the pleasure of God to save people who confess that their wisdom has failed them.

Your own understanding is a pointy stick upon which if you lean you will be pierced.

God’s wisdom is to pierce Jesus on your behalf so that upon Him you can fully lean.

thoughts from "Free to be Fallen" by Tullian Tchividjian‏

Check out the full post HERE.

 

The freedom to be OK with not being OK.

 

Some would say, “We go to church to give to God, to show Him that we’re serious.”

 

I understand the sermon note pointed at our consumerism.

 

It’s a good one.

 

Many of us do come to church only to get and never give the church or God anything.

 

And…

 

We will continue to do so unless we RESPOND to the fact that in Christ, God has given us everything.

 

The best fuel for maturity is NOT a rally cry for us to do good works in order to become who we always wanted to be.

 

The best fuel for maturity is a proclamation of forgiveness found in faith in what has already been done by God.

the sword of peace‏

Chambers pierced my heart today when he reported

 

I did not come to bring peace but a sword —Matthew 10:34

 

Never be sympathetic with a person whose situation causes you to conclude that God is dealing harshly with him.God can be more tender than we can conceive, and every once in a while He gives us the opportunity to deal firmly with someone so that He may be viewed as the tender One. If a person cannot go to God, it is because he has something secret which he does not intend to give up— he may admit his sin, but would no more give up that thing than he could fly under his own power.It is impossible to deal sympathetically with people like that. We must reach down deep in their lives to the root of the problem, which will cause hostility and resentment toward the message. People want the blessing of God, butthey can’t stand something that pierces right through to the heart of the matter.

If you are sensitive to God’s way, your message as His servant will be merciless and insistent, cutting to the very root. Otherwise, there will be no healing.We must drive the message home so forcefully that a person cannot possibly hide, but must apply its truth. Deal with people where they are, until they begin to realize their true need. Then hold high the standard of Jesus for their lives. Their response may be, “We can never be that.” Then drive it home with, “Jesus Christ says you must.”

 

There must be a sense of need created before your message is of any use. Thousands of people in this world profess to be happy without God. But if we could be truly happy and moral without Jesus, then why did He come? He came because that kind of happiness and peace is only superficial. Jesus Christ came to “bring . . . a sword” through every kind of peace that is not based on a personal relationship with Himself.

 

There is nothing more disgraceful in our culture than uttering the words, “I can’t.” 
We resist saying it. 

We encourage others to avoid saying it. 

We work harder. 
We turn frowns upside down. 
We overcome. 
We are made stronger by that which does not kill us. 
We wrestle silver linings from the skies. 
We “spin.”

 

The first trace of the grace of God is the poverty found in the end of one’s self. 

“I can’t” is the first drop of moisture dripping off the ice cold exterior of our hardened hearts.

 

“I can’t,” is the right response to the “you must” of God’s Holy Law.

 

Jesus only.

Jesus solely.

Jesus ever after be.

 

If “you can” then “He shouldn’t have,” or at least “didn’t have to.”

 

Why did God deny His Son’s request to let this cup pass?

 

Jesus had to die.

Had to.

 

Until you say, “I can’t,” you will never embrace the power of “He had to.”

shame on you!

1 Corinthians 15:34

Come to your senses and stop sinning, for some people are ignorant about God. I say this to your shame.

There is a particular sense in which being seeker sensitive is superficial and shallow. But there is a real sense in which being a bastion of light bears with it a responsibility to communicate effectively to those around us that something different controls our daily lives.

Not just our lives one day a week, but every day. Not just parts of our lives, but our whole lives. Not just what is impressive to men, but what is necessary to honor Christ in our persons.

Why are you still living in old patterns with old thoughts, old habits, old ways of speaking, old topics of discussion?

What are you doing?

Come to your senses!

Stop sinning!

If you are regenerated and renewed in Christ, you can say, “No” to sin.

For the first time in your life perhaps.

But you can.

Maybe not perfectly.

Maybe not always.

But more often than not.

And because you actually want to.

If you want to be crucified with Christ, you have to die to yourself.

Watch below.

An unbelieving world is working next to us, living next to us, driving next to us, dining next to us, waiting in line next to us and we have to be crucified with Christ in these, not just in words we sing once a week.

I wish I sinned less than I do.

I wish I desired righteousness more than I do.

But I take hope in God who covers my weakness and uses it for His glory in magnifying Christ all the more for His sufficiency to save a wretch like myself.

We can do better.

We could do worse.

But if we are Christ’s, our desires have to match His.

Maybe not in intensity or in follow through, but in essence.

We have to want what He wants and hate what He hates.

When we see it out in the world and when we see it in ourselves.

why do bad things happen to good people?

Q: Why do bad things happen to good people?

A: That only happened once and He volunteered.

Mark 10:45

...the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

is forgiveness possible?

At Men’s BASIC this morning we watched this video.
 

 
 

Good on ER for articulating with such brutal honesty the struggle of preparing to meet one’s Maker without the certainty of what one will encounter.

 

This powerful clip presents well the deep guilt of being wrong and knowing better now for what you should have known better then. This is the crystallization of epiphany. This is the coalescence of sin, shame, guilt, fear, God, and judgment.

 

What this man wants is answers. He wants to know what he is up against. Not a greeting card sentimentality about a silver lining. Sin is serious. This man recognized the severity of what he had done and what that meant for him. He did not want someone to wink at his sin. Nor someone to come along side him and tell him that we all fall short and that it is going to be OK.

 

It was not going to be OK.

 

We are not saved by our common falleness. Our most endearing quality is not that we are “just as bad” as everyone else; at least, no worse than most.

This man was right to fear God without Jesus.

 

He wants someone to shoot straight and tell him that his sin is serious and that it separates him from God. This acknowledges the shame and guilt of what he knows is bad news.

However…

Romans 4:8

How joyful is the man
the Lord will never charge with sin

 

The bad news and a right acknowledgement thereof provide a foothold for the Good News to make sense, to be accepted, and to be embraced in joyful response.

This man ultimately wanted Good News. The counselor sitting at his bed side was trying to speak to him kind words and sentiments that sounded sweet and comforting. They, however, were attempting to do so without being in concert with reality. Any attempt to make peace with God that does not include a right acknowledgement of being at war with God through sin falls flat and is nothing but flattery.

Do not make less of sin in order to make much of man.

Make much of Jesus by acknowledging the depths of sin and the abounding grace of God.

Making less of sin makes less of Jesus.

Making much of Jesus makes forgiveness justifiable.

as we learn more, He remembers less

Hebrews 10:14-17

¹⁴ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

¹⁵ And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

 

¹⁶ “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”

 

¹⁷ then he adds,

 

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

 

Jesus is sufficient.

 

Because of Him and His perfection, we are seen as perfect by God even though we aren't.

 

As we grow in godliness and sanctification we realize that God is greater than we ever imagined

AND we realize that we are worse than we first believed.

 

God puts His perfection and holiness more and more on and in our hearts and minds. As He does so, however, He reminds us amidst this increased knowledge of His holiness that our sinfulness and shortcomings are not counted against us because of Christ.

 

We are perfected because of Christ.

We are becoming more Christlike by Christ's work and grace.

We are presently seen as perfect as Christ is perfect.

We are grown in Christlikeness by remembering Christ's life, death, and resurrection.

 

Your sanctification is more about making much of Christ than it is about making you something.

 

That's a lot of Christ you say.

Not nearly enough says I.

 

Not nearly enough.

that poor bull: Chambers keeps drilling him right in his eye‏

Chambers struck gold again in My Utmost for His Highest  when he noted:

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. —Roman 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me, repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience. The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We have not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement. The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done –“It is finished.”

Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? Could for sin these atone? No! Thou must save and Thou alone!

Even if your effort and energy never lagged. Even if you were broken-hearted constantly before God to the full extent of your betrayal. Even if you tried your hardest always. Even if you claimed nothing but depravity before God. Even then, none of that could save. The sine qua non is Christ crucified and risen again. If Jesus did not die, your zeal and your tears both account for nothing before God. If they could, Christ died for no reason.

But Jesus did die. Jesus did rise again. He lives now. 

This is the Good News.

How repentant is repentant enough to be accepted before God?
How much belief in God is belief enough?
Neither a measure of repentance or belief will count for anything before God if not for Christ first and foremost on our behalf.

Repentance and belief are necessary conditions of salvation.
If you are unrepentant and disbelieving, you cannot be saved.
But even if you are repentant and believe in God, your repentance and belief fall short if He does not complete for you the work of salvation on Calvary.

When we say we “fall short,” we typically mean we sin by behaving badly.

When the Bible says we “fall short,” it means we sin by being bad.

We don’t do bad things, we are bad people who sometimes do good things and most of the time do what bad people do.

We need a Savior to do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves. Until by the grace of God we anchor ourselves in this, we are lost to lives of passionate rebellion, prideful religion, or some combination thereof ending in death.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Romans 8:6

For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Romans 8:8

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

substitute teaching‏

Hebrews 9:22

²²…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Forgiveness requires death.

There is no other way.

In our society, most people believe the only thing you have to do to go to Heaven is die.
That is not, however, what the verse states.

It is the shedding of blood that is required. The natural question is then, “Whose blood?”

Hebrews 9:25-28

²⁵ He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another.²⁶ Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world.But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. ²⁷ And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment— ²⁸ so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

Jesus’ blood.
His only.
His alone.
His ever and after.

You cannot atone for your sin, let alone the sins of others. You could not pay for your sins by being crucified. You cannot pay for your sins today by enduring hardship or completing service. The best person you know cannot absolve their own sin, let alone absorb yours. They cannot “cover” for you when you show up late or fall short, again.

Nothing can for sin atone,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
Naught of good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

~ Nothing But The Blood

More than just death.
Forgiveness requires life.
Perfect life.

Hebrews 9:24

²⁴ For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us.

Jesus is not dead.

He died to confirm the covenant and ensure we inherited that which He determined in God’s will. No, not the “should I buy this house or marry that person” kind of will, but the type of will that is a document that contractually allocates the full and final wishes and resources of the one who has died. A last will and testament if you will. Man, I am full of puns of fun on this one. And I can’t stop rhyming!!!

Perfect death.
Perfect life.

Perfect sacrifice.
Perfect Priest.

Jesus pays our debt in full.

Jesus earns our inheritance in full.

He is our substitute.

He takes our place and then allows you to take His place in line.

Jesus is our perfection and before God, in Him, we meet God’s standard of perfection by His grace imparting faith to us to believe in His perfection for us ALONE!

"i want what is owed to me!" and other things that Grace will slay you for saying.

Jeremiah 4:18

18 Your ways and your deeds
have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is bitter;
it has reached your very heart.

The worst strategy for surviving God's presence is requesting what you have earned. 
The next worst, by the by, is banking on being better than the guy next to you.

"The wages of sin is death."

Paul says this in Romans having already exhaustively proven that we are sinners. 

What do sinners do? 
They sin. 

What does sin earn? 
Death. 

Connect the dots.

We are sinners who sin. 
Sin is our wages. 
What we earn is death.
Our paycheck sucks.

You do not want what is coming to you.

This is your doom, and it is bitter;
it has reached your very heart.

You need grace.
You will not be shown grace by God.
He is too holy to pretend you aren't.

You need Jesus.

Romans 4:4-5

⁴ Now to the one who works, pay is not considered as a gift, but as something owed. ⁵ But to the one who does not work, but believes on Him who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness.

In Jesus, our wages are paid. 
He cashed the checks our hearts wrote.

By faith, Jesus' wages are transferred to our account. 
He earned godly wages and grants them to us.

This is the Great Exchange.

And all of this by faith in receiving something on your behalf already accomplished by God.