Category: Cross

The Reason for Every Regular Day Jesus Lived

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– The God who designed a woman’s womb was birthed from one with much travail.

– The One whose joy is everlasting had to burst into tears as He took His first breath.

– Jesus who spins the planets around the sun now stands beneath the moon and stars.

– Christ who powers that bright orb now grows weary under its heat at the peak of day.

– The God of perfect, triune love feels the sting of hatred and desertion.

– The One who supplies all creatures with daily food experiences hunger pangs.

– Jesus who created the universe in six days without exertion now grows tired at each day’s end.

– Christ who is eternal now knows the gloom of impending death all His earthly days.

– The God who formed each person’s body with intricacy and wonder now walks about in flesh that feels pain.

– The One who is Lord of the universe becomes just one Person among many, unknown and unpopular.

– Jesus who owns the whole world now faces the sting of poverty.

– Christ who never sinned becomes the sacrifice for all sin.

– God who sustains the life of all creation must raise Himself from the reality of death.

– The Christ of Heaven must ascend back to Heaven.

– The God of all glory who willingly chose to do all this will come again to restore us to the glory He originally intended.

We celebrate at Christmastime the day of the birth of Jesus Christ. While this is important, we cannot forget the days after His birth and the totality of the life He lived preceding His death and resurrection. For these days, we are most thankful. These days enabled Him to be made “perfect through suffering” on our behalf. (Hebrews 2:10, ESV).

Jesus suffered long before His crucifixion. The highest of all beings descended to the lowest of human experiences. Isaiah 53:2-3 (ESV) assures us that Jesus was not a glamorous or popular person and that, in fact, He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

When we hear in Hebrews 2:10 that Jesus was made “perfect through suffering,” God does not mean to say that Jesus had ever been imperfect or sinful. The word rendered “perfect” here means “to be brought to completion” or “to have the end goal accomplished.” How amazing that God chose to complete the job of participating in our suffering by enduring the regular, human struggle – including Monday mornings! – from the day of His birth to the day of His death.

Hebrews 2:10 heartens us, because we realize that the founder of our salvation knows exactly how we feel in the human experience. Jesus began the journey of identifying with us from the moment He descended to the womb of Mary. And every minute after that added to the process of Christ fully identifying with our frustration, pain, loneliness, and heartache.

The culmination of all His days was the moment He cried out on the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30, ESV). The work was then complete. All our sin had been paid for, as Jesus had walked all His days as we walk in order to be the perfect substitute for us.

Thank you, Jesus, for your humble birth in to the world – and for EVERY DAY thereafter.

“Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17, NLT)

Birth Pains of the End Times

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People and politicians promising deliverance from the ills of the world. War. Threats of war. Entire nations clashing with other nations. Famine. Earthquakes. Persecution of Christians. Betrayal. False teachers making people believe wrong doctrine. Lawlessness. Half-hearted believers. Yet, in all this, the true Gospel is preached everywhere.

Does all this sound like the days in which we live? Surely it does. We do, in fact, live in the last days of which Jesus spoke. Since He left this earth in the early first century A.D., all people have been passing their time in “the last days.” The only question is, “How much longer will the last days … well … ‘last'”? Actually, that’s not the question, because God clearly tells us that we cannot know its answer.

However, our great Savior outlined a pattern we may observe. The pattern does not give us a day, year, or century; but it assures us of the absolute direction of the plan’s fulfillment. We are left with a confidence in the sovereignty of God despite the trouble of the last days.

The troubles and events of the first paragraph of this article are the things of which Jesus spoke in Matthew 24:5-14. He knew that rudimentary methods of war would escalate to more technological and biological methods. He knew that natural disasters would devastate entire regions. He knew that ISIS would drive Christians by the tens of thousands from their homes in Iraq and torture and kill many of them. He knew many false preachers and teachers would water down true Christianity and cause numerous souls to be disillusioned and many hearts to grow cold in their love and faith. He knew that the internet and satellites would make it possible for the Gospel to be preached nearly anywhere.

In speaking of many of these difficulties, Jesus clearly articulated, “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:8, ESV). I want to emphasize His use of the phrase “birth pains.” The Apostle Paul spoke similarly in Romans 8:22 (ESV), “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” So what has this discussion of such a vivid and trying human experience to do with the last days of history and the whole creation?

Birth pains notoriously increase in intensity and frequency as the time for delivery draws near. Clearly, God wants us to know that all of the difficulties and disasters of which we spoke at the beginning of this article have always been with us, but they will happen with greater frequency and greater intensity as the time of Christ’s return draws near. Wars and Christian persecution and natural disasters and the influence of false prophets and the downgrade of Christian dedication will be on the rise. None of this should discourage us, for Jesus said, “See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6b, ESV). In other words, we are not caught off guard by the daily news; but we grow ever more prayerful and vigilant, as all the news is just a reminder that the time until God’s final judgment grows shorter. However, none of it happens outside the sovereignty and watchful eye of the Lord!

Jesus said of the “labor pains” that “this must take place.” Yes! Just as the labor pains of a mother must occur in order to ensure the delivery of a child, the labor pains of this world must happen in order for the delivery of the new creation. A woman’s body ramps up the production of certain hormones in order to stimulate delivery. Though the process is painful, the process is necessary. The pains are not for the purpose of destruction, but for the purpose of life! So, too, it is with the delivery of God’s kingdom. The New Heavens and the New Earth will only be born after the labor pains of the end times. We are not to be destroyed by these convulsions, but we are to be prepared by these pains. The distress is meant to push forward the process of delivery – not impede it. The pains awaken us to the reality of our own frailty and inability to navigate the judgment of God without the grace of Jesus Christ. The afflictions prod us to witness to those who are lost in their sin. The pains alert us to the short life of this old, sinful world. The pains get us ready for delivery by making us stronger in difficulty and more vigilant in living.

Birth pains lead to life. The contractions result in delivery and new life. And so it is. Jesus endured the greatest pain ever imagined on the Cross. Using the same Greek root for “pangs” in Acts 2:24 (ESV) as is used for “birth pains” in Matthew 24, Luke declares, “God raised [Jesus] up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” In other words, the miseries of death could not prevail when it came to the Son of God. He was delivered! The pain led to victory and new life for all who believe.

This is why Romans 8:29 (ESV) declares that Jesus is “the firstborn among many brothers” (emphasis added). After experiencing the pain of the human dilemma throughout His earthly life, Jesus’ “birth pains” intensified toward the end. Hatred for Him and false accusations about Him grew until He was finally arrested, tortured, and crucified. Nonetheless, the pain led to life and resurrection for Jesus and new, spiritual life to all who believe and walk with Him.

Meanwhile, we remain watchful, guarding our lives carefully as we see God’s plan unfold. The labor pains will lead eventually to life. The pangs spur us on to value what is important – to stay focused on our Hope, our Savior. The contractions grow in intensity and frequency, as they lead to the great delivery of God’s people and this creation. Don’t give up as the pain comes; look up to the Ultimate Deliverer. Jesus said, “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13, ESV).

Stick around for the birth, will you?

How Can I Believe In A God that Tortures People In Hell?

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An unbeliever asks, “How can you believe that God tortures people forever in Hell?” Now, wait a second; let’s think this through. First of all, the most startling thing is that God punished His very own Son (and Self) on the Cross two thousand years ago. In fact, the word excruciating comes from the Latin word for cross. Keep in mind also that the pain God inflicted on His Son was not only physical, but spiritual in nature. Jesus endured the guilt of our sin. He was tormented in body and spirit for our wickedness, though He is God and completely perfect. (II Corinthians 5:21)

Secondly, God “tortured” Himself, if you will, in order that we might be freed from the penalty and punishment we justly deserve. He deserved none of it, for Jesus is the perfect Son of God (I Peter 3:18). In effect, God does not send any person to eternal and tormented separation from Him without first offering the torment of His own Son (and Self) as the primary sacrifice … and the way out of anguish for all believing humans.

Thirdly, we are finite creatures sinning against an infinitely holy God. It is one thing for me to sin against another human being (and God holds us accountable for that), but in every sin we are ultimately offending God (Psalm 51:4). Sinning against an infinitely holy God obviously demands an infinite punishment. And, my friend, only an infinite God could absorb the world’s sin in a moment of time. That’s exactly what Jesus did! His infinitude allowed Him to absorb the totality of sin in one event of history. We finite creatures, however, would have to carry our own guilt on ourselves forever in order to pay it off. (John 3:36) Hence, Hell is an everlasting punishment.

So, before we get disturbed by the concept of Hell, we need to get amazed by the concept of Calvary. There, God inflicted immeasurable spiritual, emotional, and physical pain on His own Self as Jesus suffered and died. Jesus is our Way of escape from the misery of Hell, which is brought on by our own rebellion and refusal to believe in the measureless love and perfectly just plan of God.

First and foremost, we must understand that God placed our well-deserved penalty on Jesus, the Perfect One, who deserved no chastisement. Our punishment rightly follows if we sinners refuse to accept this great plan of unimaginable love. (Isaiah 53:10)

Confident Conscience

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A tormentor and murderer of believers. A man so fixated on his own, false religious zeal that he despised God’s own people and threw them into prison. This was the apostle Paul in his early days. So, if anyone had reason to bear a guilty conscience and be left in the misery of regret, it was Paul.

I think about the real man, Paul, as he sat chained in an underground Roman prison. The tables are turned, and the redeemed Paul is now the one being persecuted for his faith. He knows his execution is near, and he is left with his thoughts and his God in the dark, damp, disgusting dungeon.

If Paul was a human like you and me – and HE WAS – then his mind had to have drifted back a few years to Stephen, the first martyr of the Church. After Stephen witnessed to the crowds of God’s love in Jesus, the crowd rushed at Stephen and stoned him to death. And guess what leader was there approving of Stephen’s execution? Paul! In fact, as Acts 8:3 (ESV) details, “But Saul [Paul] was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.” With all this in mind, we can only surmise that Paul had to be pondering the irony of his situation. The persecutor has become the persecuted. The murderer is about to be murdered.

Now we might conclude that Paul’s psychological position at this point would be one of weakness. Feeling sorry for himself, he might have thought, “Well, I deserve this.” If I were Paul, I would have been tempted to believe the worst – that because of all my sin, I was finally going to get what I had coming to me. God’s care of me might have been seriously clouded by my own guilt. Could I even call on Jesus now to help me … after all I’ve done? Why should God deliver me from circumstances exactly like those to which I had sinfully committed other people? Why should God help me, when I had been so evil?

Miraculously – and I mean by the actual miracle of God’s grace – Paul’s psychological bent at this point in his life was one of strength … and a confident conscience. Against all odds of human tendency, Paul penned the following words from his dungeon soon before he was beheaded, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Timothy 4:18, ESV).

Can you believe it? Paul was not drowning in guilt or pity. He believed God would rescue him from every evil deed – despite the evil he had done. Paul was fully convinced that Jesus had already taken the hit for his sin when He died on the Cross. Paul – even in his last days – lived by the truth of the full forgiveness we find through Jesus Christ. The blood Jesus shed was truly a healing salve for Paul’s guilty conscience, broken heart, and haunted mind.

Jesus gave to Paul not only a clean conscience, but a confident conscience. Jesus enabled Paul to live above both the physical and psychological circumstances that would seem to hold him down. History upholds the execution of Paul under Emperor Nero. He did not recant. His head was placed on the chopping block, but his conscience was unbroken. At the moment of his death, I wonder if Paul was recalling the words he had written in Romans 5:1 (ESV), “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”?

Personal Reflection Questions:

1) For what sins should your conscience be broken and guilty?

2) Have you really trusted that the substitution of Jesus enduring the wrath of God on your behalf has cleared your guilt before God?

3) Will you, as Paul, trust God today for a clean conscience through Jesus AND a CONFIDENT conscience for all the future holds?

Far As the Curse Is Found

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Third verse of Joy To the World:
“He comes to make his blessings known far as the curse is found…”

Just exactly how far IS the curse found?

It reaches down every aisle at Walmart in the hearts of frustrated people.
It’s found at every opening of a bottle of medicine at the hands of the sick.
It strikes the houses in the neighborhood in the hearts of lonely people.
It stretches to the office of every person with an unfulfilled dream.
It extends to the corner of the classroom with the isolated child.
It spreads through the community after the devastating storm.
It seizes the face of the hurting as tears run down their cheeks.

Jesus came to bring His redeeming grace far as the curse is found. This grace currently enables us to hold on while we walk in the places touched by the curse. This redeeming power will one day overcome the curse in all places of its grasp.

The God who brought the curse because of our sin, will soon remove the curse because of His Son. The curse does not magically disappear; it has been undone through the curse put upon the Son of God on the cross. (II Corinthians 5:21)

Thank you, Jesus, that one day no person will walk in frustration.
No medicine will ever again be needed.
No person will ever be lonely.
No worthy dream will ever go unfulfilled.
No natural disaster will ever wreak havoc.
And no tear of sadness will ever be shed.

“He comes to make his blessings known far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found, far as, far as the curse is found.”

(Revelation 21:3)

47th Greatest Invention . . .

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Though the printing press was deemed the number one innovation since the invention of the wheel by The Atlantic magazine’s group of scientists, historians, and technologists; it was number 47 on the list that caught my eye. Don’t get me wrong, we as Christians understand God’s hand in the development of the printing press, for God chose to reveal Himself through a book! However, check out the succinct description of the 47th greatest breakthrough since the wheel according to The Atlantic: “The nail, second millennium B.C. ‘Extended lives by enabling people to have shelter.’ -Leslie Berlin”

Wow. The nail enabled people to have shelter. Though Leslie Berlin was probably thinking of the physical shelter nails help to provide when they are pounded into wood and concrete, my mind went immediately to the spiritual shelter we find because of the three nails used by Roman soldiers two thousand years ago. And actually, those three nails were in the “hands” of God the Father, who willingly sacrificed His Son so you and I might find shelter from the justly deserved wrath of a Holy God. The ultimate effect of my own sin cannot rain down upon me, because I am under the shelter of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on that old, rugged Cross.

The Atlantic says that nails “extended lives by enabling people to have shelter.” Again – no doubt – the extension refers to earthly years. Physical life could go on longer because our bodies were better protected from the elements, wild animals, and enemies. But we as children of God apprehend the measureless value of spiritual life. No matter the year or day of our physical demise, salvation ensures eternal life. As Peter so beautifully records, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable” (I Peter 1:23, ESV). The nails that pierced the body of Jesus on Mount Calvary have brought to us an endlessly extended life!

Just as those nails of long ago punctured the physical body of Jesus, they will also help bring to our physical bodies the new and glorified existence we shall enjoy forever and ever. I Thessalonians 3:20b-21 (ESV) proclaims, “We await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body.” The crucifixion of Jesus – aided by nails – ensures our safety in an incalculable and everlasting sense.

A thank you to The Atlantic for reminding us of the importance of nails. We take much for granted. And the biggest thank you to our God who gave humans the capacity to invent the nail, which He knew would be used to crucify His own Son. No doubt, God was thinking of sheltering us when He created trees and inspired the invention of nails.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.'” (Psalm 91:1-2, ESV)

Reference: Fallows, James. “The 50 Greatest Breakthroughs Since the Wheel.” The Atlantic. Nov 2013. 56-58.

The Merging of Human and Divine Suffering

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Human misery abounds. We endure pain that comes in many shapes, sizes and ways. The heart aches, the body hurts, the mind is torn; and all the while life goes on. The questions beneath the surface are, “Does God understand?” and “Does God care?”

In teaching an adult class in Christian apologetics (a reasoned defense and articulation of the biblical faith), I was moved deeply in one moment of time as we recognized the profound message of God through one of the Psalms. We were studying the miraculous fulfillment of prophecy (against mathematical odds) as evidence of the Bible’s credibility. In particular, Psalm 22 is a psalm of David, written c. 1000 B.C. And yet, we find much of its content fulfilled in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ c. A.D. 30. God stays true to His Word over the span of a millennium. The Spirit of God worked through David’s life and mind as the words of Psalm 22 were written, and the same Holy Spirit was at the Cross of Calvary as Jesus suffered.

Striking me in our class that one particular day, were the beauty and comfort of the merging of the affliction of both man and God. You see, David was a mere human. He was a brave shepherd who became a king, but he was also a person who committed adultery and murder. David was a man of flesh and bone. He knew success and he knew failure. He prospered at times, but he also endured great loss. Hated and pursued by King Saul, having watched his baby with Bathsheba die, betrayed by his own son, and regretting deeply His sin; David was a human who knew anguish. That anguish pours from his pen in Psalm 22.

Hear David’s first lament in verse one, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1, ESV) Have you ever felt this way? Forsaken by God? As if God is distant and not hearing your groans? Perhaps we perceive a distance because our distress is so great, or because our sins against God are so palpable. In either case, we at times feel that the Lord has thoroughly forgotten us. We understand David’s grieving.

Ah, but do we understand God’s grieving? Do we recognize that for however intensely we sink into sorrow, God sinks even deeper? Though David asked and recorded these dark questions 1,000 years before Jesus came to earth, the Son of God Himself uttered the same words as He languished on the Cross. Yes, I at times feel like God has abandoned me. The sinfulness of me and the whole world has shattered the framework of peace and right as originally intended. That invasion of brokenness as the result of sin leads us to sense that we have somehow been deserted. Though the feeling is very real to us, the truth is that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was actually isolated as His Father substituted Him as the offering for our sin in the grueling moments of the Cross. Jesus did, in fact, endure the unimaginable darkness of being abandoned by the Father. With incredible determination, Jesus willingly took the hit of “being forsaken.” We hear Him call out loudly from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV)

Would you look to the dovetailing here of human and divine misery? What David feels, God fulfills. The hurt we humans face is met directly by our Creator. His love is so profound that He dives even lower into the hurt than we can go. Never believe that God does not understand. Place one finger in your Bible at Psalm 22 and another in Matthew 27, and then ask God to comfort your heart with His immeasurable and tangible understanding of your pain.

The entirety of Psalm 22 is filled with allusions to Christ’s suffering. Amazingly, God parallels the hurt of Jesus with the feelings of David. David cries, “My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast” (Psalm 22:14b, ESV). We know that misery. We have experienced our heart “melting” in despair. Incredibly, this outpouring of David by God’s Spirit is surrounded by words we again can tie directly to God’s Son: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death” (Psalm 22:14-15, ESV). Jesus’ body was hanging on a cross – bones out of joint – but not broken. He suffered unbelievable thirst. Ultimately, God laid His Son in the dust of death, as no human took His life. Following the death of Jesus, water and blood poured from His side at the strike of the Roman spear. All these details correspond to the feelings and prophecy of David’s Psalm. Do you see the merging of how we sometimes and temporarily feel with the actuality of God’s suffering?

Take comfort! The last verses of the psalm confirm the glorious end result of God’s work in the midst of greatest distress. God was in control even as Jesus died. God raised Him up! God accomplished His goal; the suffering had purpose! So does yours. “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him” (Psalm 22:24, ESV).

God knows. Your greatest misery merges – just as David’s – with the suffering of God. He did not have to, but God chose to enter into pain more profoundly than we can imagine. When you pray, He understands.