Reconciled

I love the C.S. Lewis book, “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”.  Outside of the Bible, it may be the book that best illustrated to me what the gospel really means.  When Edmund betrays Aslan and the “deep magic from the dawn of time,” the price of that treason must be paid in order to preserve justice and goodness.  And yet out of goodness, love, and a heart to be in unhindered relationship with Edmund, the powerful, majestic, perfectly good Aslan, although innocent, humbles himself and willingly pays the high price of Edmund’s treason.  Aslan’s painful and perfect sacrifice defeats death itself and makes a way for Edmund to live and to be in relationship with Aslan.  Edmund and Aslan are reconciled.  This brings great joy and peace to Edmund.

The gospel is all about the fact that we, through the death of Jesus, are reconciled to our perfect and good God—in whom is our every delight! 

In light of this gospel, as Christians we should live with a heart towards reconciliation with our brothers and sisters.  Yet over and over again as Christians and as churches, how many times do we take the path of least resistance when conflict arises---allowing relationships to fizzle out, breaking off relationships altogether, self-righteously judging from afar, aligning ourselves with the popular majority, building walls around our hearts…rather than doing the hard work of love.  These are our instincts.  These are my instincts (most especially in marriage).  How this dishonors the gospel that saved me!

Love pursues, love engages, love acts, and love hopes…even if it requires great sacrifice (and it usually does).

Dear Lord, convict our stubborn hearts!  Open our eyes where we are blind.  Help us to see where we are dishonoring the gospel of love!  Fill us with the Spirit that we would have your eyes and your love for others, even those we find difficult to love and even when it costs us greatly to love.  Give us the power, courage and conviction to do the hard work of love.  May we be so rooted in your sacrificial and grace filled love that loving others in the same way becomes more and more natural to us.  In Jesus name, Amen

Walking in the Light and Getting Dirty

I recently read this terrific blogpost by my friend, Wendy:

http://www.theologyforwomen.org/2012/03/dysfunctional-but-cherished-church.html

To those who do not understand the gospel, the story of Hosea and Gomer in the Bible makes no sense. In it, God tells a faithful, godly, man to marry a faithless prostitute who continues to cheat on him throughout their marriage.  As the painful faithlessness continues, God continually instructs Hosea to pursue and forgive his wayward bride.  It is a pretty strange story if you think of it.  And yet, it is a powerful illustration of what God has done for His Bride, the Church.  Yes, the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ, the Church---we are the prostitute in this story.  We rebelled against God.  God pursued and redeemed us while we were faithless.  And we continue to sin against Him in this life…we have tasted His grace and mercy, we (I) still rebel against His Holy ways in lots of ways, and yet He has paid the price of justice for my sins—past, present, and future.  He continually forgives me as I continually struggle with sin, and He continually changes me so that I am gradually being transformed by His grace!  That is the gospel—or good news!  Though I have been a Christian for over 2 decades, I need this good news still today!!! 

The gospel assumes sin.  The good news is that God pursues us in our sin and rescues us from our sin.  The Church is a mess.  We are a mess.  And yet, we are a beloved mess—beloved by the God of the Universe who paid such a costly price to save us!

As Christians, we are called to live out the gospel.  We are called to live in light of the good news that our God so sacrificially and lovingly stooped down to meet us in our sin against Him and pursued and rescued us—He forgave us and covered our sins.  I see two big ways that the Bible calls Christians to live out the gospel:

1)      Walking in the light—in other words, we are called to be humble, honest, and real.  We are called to confess that we sin.  We are called to confess our sin to one another.  We (Christians as individuals and also collectively as the Church) are not to walk around hiding the fact that we sin (often in big ways...anyone need only open a newspaper to see this!) or that we are weak and in need of a Savior.  If we do not  live like this, we are hypocritical, self-righteous, deluded pharisees (Jesus  actually called them white-washed tombs!)! Again, the gospel assumes our sin.  We allow the good news to shine when we admit that still, despite our sin and weakness, God has done and continues to do a good work in us and through us and despite us.

2)      Getting dirty—Jesus washed the feet of the disciples.  In His day, you can imagine the type of filth that was on the feet of people who walked around on dirt roads in open shoes in the heat without the benefits of modern sanitation and plumbing.  Jesus stooped down and got dirty.  He met these disciples in their filth and He lovingly washed them clean.  Jesus meets us in our sin and shame.  He meets us in the pain of our own sin and weakness and in the pain of the sin that has been done against us.  Scandalously, He even washed the feet of the one whom He knew would betray Him—Judas, a close friend until that time, one in whom He invested and loved and who would sell Jesus to His enemies for a cheap 30 pieces of silver.  Wow.  And then Jesus tells the disciples to go and do likewise!  We are called to get dirty—to meet one another in the messiness of life, to love one another in costly and sacrificial ways, and to even show sincere and scandalous love to those who hurt and betray us!  Are we willing to pay the price??  Are we willing to take up our cross? 

Oh, Jesus, help us to live like this!!  Give us this kind of love that is not natural to us!!  Give us this kind of humility that is not natural to us!!!  Help us to be honest and real.  Give us hearts that are willing to pursue those who are broken and hurting and even those who have sinned against us--depsite the price we often must pay to our pride, our reputation, etc.

Activism

I’m an activist at heart.  I feel my blood boil when I think of the powerful exploiting the weak, the many taking advantage of the few, or the privileged oppressing the less privileged.   This does not always result in godliness in me.  It can lead me to speaking too quickly (selfishly wanting to "unload" and not lovingly and prayerfully discerning timing--which is important even when speaking what is true) and not resting in God's timing and plan (sinfully trying to control, being impatient, not trusting in God, and becoming judgmental of my brother).    And too often, my frustration with injustice can sinfully lead me to bitterness or misplaced hope.  This inevitably results when I allow my anger and brokenhearted-ness to be divorced from the perspective of eternal gospel hope in Christ. Accordingly, I have to acknowledge, guard against, and fight against these propensities toward sin in myself.  The best way for me to do this to be rooted in the gospel—the reality that:

1)      I, along with my fellow human beings, have betrayed the only good, perfect, almighty, all-loving, all wise, creator God;

2)      the just penalty of this betrayal and subsequent defilement is death and separation from a Perfect God;

3)      our God is so good and loves us so much that He sacrificed Himself for us, paying the just penalty of our sin so that we could be with Him forever if we believe in Him and follow Him in faith;

4)      He gives us access to Him, not just in the future in heaven, but also right now through His Word and His Spirit and through prayer; 

5)      He is changing us from the inside out, giving us faith, new desires, and power to follow Him;

6)      God is working all things in this world for His glory and the good of His people, in such a way that our character will be in line with His, what is wrong will be righted, and the pain of this life will seem like a “light and momentary affliction” when compared to the “eternal weight of glory” that He is bringing about through the things of this life.

When I am rooted in this gospel (which means “good news”), I can seek the Lord’s counsel and wait on Him, trusting His sovereignty, wisdom, goodness, and power despite the horrors I see in my heart and in this world.  When I am rooted in the gospel, I can trust that He is at work in my heart and the hearts of my brothers and sisters, even when I do not understand or even when I can see blatant sin.  When I am rooted in the gospel, I can acknowledge the afflictions of life and yet not be consumed by them because I already have the all surpassing joy of knowing Jesus and I have great hope in what He is doing that my eye cannot see.  When I am rooted in the gospel, I can have love, compassion, forgiveness, hope and peace for those who sin against and harm me or others. 

Obviously, none of us are purely activists all the time or purely those who wait all the time, but most of us have a tendency towards one of these directions.  And one propensity is not better than the other.  What about you, where do you fall?  Are you an activist too, or do your tendencies swing in the other direction?  The godly side of not having an activist tendency can be mercifulness, forbearance, patience, faith, peacefulness, and gentleness.  These are godly, honorable, and precious qualities that we all should seek to cultivate!  However, some of the propensities towards sin for those who do not have activist personalities can be apathy, selfishness, laziness, partiality, fear of man and other things, and lack of faith and love that is unwilling to speak truth or to do hard things or to stand up for others until our own well-being is on the line.  Again, the answer to the propensity towards sin here is still the gospel.  The gospel gives us power to love as Christ loves.  When we apathetically or fearfully fail to stand up for or reach out to our brother, we fail to love our brother—this same person who was lovingly made in the image and likeness of God and for whom Jesus gave His precious life!! This is no small sin!  Yet, Christ demonstrates to us a different way! When we were without hope in our sin, Christ, out of His great love, stood up and did something for us!  God spoke out to us and for us!  He reached out to us. He loved us at great cost to Himself.  Christ did the hard things of faith and love-- forsaking His reputation, comfort, privilege, etc. to rescue those who betrayed Him.  Christ did not follow the powerful or popular or winsome.  He invested in and even stood up for the “nobodies” of this world—those who were obviously imperfect and despised or rejected or not even noticed by the “somebodies” of His time.   Christ did not throw away or abandon the sinful and imperfect.  Christ allowed His reputation to be maligned and slandered by spiteful and/or ignorant lies for the sake of rescuing the lost.  Christ endured great persecution so that He could win our salvation.  Christ spoke the truth, even though He knew He would suffer for it. His example in the gospel compels us to love in this way.  From the Old Testament to the New, the Scriptures repeatedly and explicitly direct us to love in this way!

My dear friend, Wendy, wrote an excellent blog that talks more about the phenomenon “when good men do nothing”.  It can be found here:

http://www.theologyforwomen.org/2011/11/when-good-men-do-nothing.html#comments

I have also posted her full blog article, “When Good Men Do Nothing” below. 

Here is a blogpost of mine that speaks a little to this theme as well:

http://abranchinthevine.blogspot.com/2010/04/doing-nothing-equals-something.html

Heavenly Father, Thank you for the gospel!!  Thank you that it is the answer for us, no matter who we are and no matter what strengths or weaknesses and sin we possess.  Father, give us humble hearts to soberly assess ourselves and our character.  Speak into our lives with your truth.  Speak to us about ways that our heart and life are not in line with your gospel.  Show us specific situations in our life where you are calling us to repentance.  Show us what repentance looks like and give us the strength to obey where you lead, even if it comes at great cost to ourselves.  Fill our hearts with gospel love for those around us.  Protect us from sinning against our brother and displaying a lack of love through bitterness, judgmental-ness, or a lack of gospel faith and hope.  Protect us from sinning against our brother and displaying a lack of love by failing to act, failing to stand up against injustice, failing to reach out to those who are suffering, and by simply being apathetic.  Help us to be rooted and established in gospel love.  As you teach us about yourself and mature us, may your work be demonstrated in us through ever increasing love for you, for our family and friends, for our neighbors, for strangers, and even for those who have harmed us.  Give us this radical love.  Awaken your church and forgive your church for our apathy and rebellion.  Fill us with courage and faith and power.  Help us to live in the hope and freedom of the gospel!!  In Jesus Name, Amen

From Wendy’s blog:

http://www.theologyforwomen.org/2011/11/when-good-men-do-nothing.html#comments

When Good Men Do Nothing

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke

It's been painful to watch the fallout of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal. The subject has inspired numerous Christian blog posts. One of the best I have read is from a Penn State Campus Crusade for Christ staffer. You can read it here. Probably enough has been said, yet unraveling the answer to the question of what causes good men and women to do nothing at times in the face of evil seems important to me.

I love football and have respected Joe Paterno as a coach over the years. It saddens me to see his incredible career end in such a way. What saddens me most is that I think, in terms of character, Joe Paterno is a respectable man. Yet, this respectable man allowed a very bad thing to go on under his nose. And not just him – there's a whole slew of men who should have known better who allowed the worst kind of abuse of a minor to happen on their watch. They closed their ears and turned away. How did that happen?!

Some have expressed concern about how Paterno and others have been treated in the wake of the allegations. I think this stems in part from the disturbing idea for many of us that we might have reacted exactly the same way. We too might have wrestled for days over what to report to higher ups and how to paint what we did report. We too might have let it go after doing the bare minimum needed to ease our conscience. I could easily see myself at certain stages of my life numbing my conscience on the issue with words like “Well, I reported it to my authority. I did what was required of me. I can't help it if they don't do more. I've done my responsibility.”

Penn State's football program is legendary. Joe Paterno ran a tight ship. The men in charge of that program--Athletic Director, Coach, Offensive Coordinator, Defensive Coordinator, and so forth--were respected and revered. They were obeyed. It was not unlike authoritarian church and ministry structures with which I have been involved over the years. In those systems, the good guys are the ones who respect authority. They buck it up and contribute even when they dislike an order. Respect, cooperation, and obedience to your superiors are fundamental to the entire system. I have empathy for the young graduate assistant who first witnessed his boss raping a minor in the locker room. I'm sure he was shocked and horrified. What do you do when your authority in this authoritarian system is the one doing this act? The GA didn't intervene. And I fear that when I was his age, I may not have intervened either. At least not immediately. Now 41 years old and the mother of children myself, no one could stop me if I witnessed that today. But back then, I valued respect of authority so much that I fear I would have been paralyzed in the moment, to my life long regret.

The graduate assistant finally told his dad, and his dad helped him tell Coach Paterno. Both seemed to meet their minimum legal requirement. Yet neither stopped the cycle of abuse that continued for several more years. Why? The Campus Crusade pastor points out in his article the deficiency of love for the victim. That is the fundamental, root issue. But a secondary issue is that they all thought they had more to lose by standing up strongly for the victims than they did by protecting the program. Obviously, they were very, very wrong and have lost much more by covering it up. The urge to stand up for a little guy none of them knew faded in the shadow of the behemoth that was the Penn State football program.

Good men do nothing a lot. Good women too. We do nothing sometimes out of self protection. But more often, I think we do nothing because we value protecting authoritarian systems more than we do standing up for the victim. I've experienced this before in various Christian ministries—a leader with authority does wrong. But the reputation of the institution and those associated with it seems more important than seeking justice for the one abused or oppressed. I could write out a long list of names of good men and women I know personally, men and women of proven character and good reputation, who did not stand up for victims and instead protected a program or ministry. I've done it myself at times. Rocking the boat didn't seem a Christian virtue in that moment.

Though good church people often value submission to authority over advocacy for the oppressed, God is clear on what we need to do with abusive authority.

Isaiah 1:17
17learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.

Psalm 82:3
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Psalm 10:18
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

Proverbs 31:9
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy.

God calls us to step up for the poor and defenseless. Be aware of our propensity to turn away and hear clearly God's command to engage. And if you have been silent or turned away, humble yourself and make it right. If the gospel is truly our foundation in Christian ministry, we have hope for redemption and transformation when we choose humble responses that seek to correct our mistakes. Humble repentance, not defensiveness, is the absolute key to dealing with past failures, and meditation on God's strong admonition to do justice for the oppressed is key for the future.

The Gospel

I love my husband.  I love how I see God's grace in his life.  God is so good.

I absolutely loved the sermon that Kristian preached this morning.  Hearing the Gospel fills my soul with joy, peace, and hope--it never fails.  Thank you Jesus!

http://www.gracepugetsound.com/sermons/Ellefsen9-19-10.mp3

My King

Kristian's Preaching

I love hearing my "ex-atheist" husband preach the gospel.  God is so good.

Here is the audio:

http://www.gracepugetsound.com/sermons/Ellefsen3-7-10.mp3

Why I Need Jesus

Eight years ago, I invited my “least likely to become a Christian” friend to attend Good Friday service with me. This is a friend who is one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. This is a friend who, for years, frequently mocked my faith as a naïve and false security in a mythological tale. This is a friend who once stole a Christian Fellowship sign in college and scratched out the name of “Jesus” so that the sign read “Elvis Lives”. However, only a few weeks prior to coming to Good Friday service with me, this friend sent me an e-mail that literally nearly caused me to fall off the chair in which I was sitting. The e-mail said that this friend wanted to try out church for the first time. The Good Friday service we attended together was powerful and heavy. The intimate sanctuary was dark with a few lit candles. Our then bearded and stout young pastor, Mark Driscoll, sat on a stool at the front of the room dressed casually in all black. He held a microphone in his hand and read the crucifixion account in a deep husky voice. His intense utterings were interrupted intermittently by musicians, who were also dressed in black and playing sorrowful tunes. The final words from Mark's mouth thundered,“It is Finished!” The room was doused in total darkness and silence as all of the candles were snuffed out and not a word was spoken by the somber crowd. The silence was broken by the sound of shuffling feet as people quietly made their way to the doors and into the crisp night air. Once my friend and I got a comfortable distance from the little church, I whispered over to him, “The story does not end there.”

If you have read the fuller story here,

http://abranchinthevine.blogspot.com/search/label/My%20Story

you might know the story above was about the first day my husband (then “just friend”) Kristian went to church. Several weeks later, he fell in love with Jesus and has been ever since.

With this being Holy week, I thought I would mediate on why I needed Jesus to die for me on the cross. Whether we are new Christians, or we have been walking with the Lord for most of our lives, the truths below contain life for us! May we never forget that it was the wretchedness of our sin that sent Jesus to the cross! May these truths fill us with humility, wonder, and awe. May these truths produce in us confidence in and love and praise for the God who willingly, lovingly, and sacrifically, rescued us!

God is Perfect, Holy, Good, Righteous, Pure, and Just.

Psalm 36:5-6 “Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord.”

Revelations 4:8 tells us ““Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,who was and is and is to come!”

Psalm 116:5 “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.”

I am nowhere near perfect, holy, good, righteous, pure or just. I am selfish, greedy, impure, unloving, and faithless. Over and over again, I have chosen disobedience, rebellion, fear, and sin rather than trusting and obeying God. I have missed the mark. As Scripture puts it, I have exchanged the glory of God for cheap idols in my life (Psalm 106; Romans 1:23). I “exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:24).

Indeed I am not alone, Romans 3:22 & 23 tells us about all humankind: “For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

My sin was a barrier to relationship with a Perfect God. Even in human institutes of justice, a good judge does not overlook crime. A perfectly just God would not allow wickedness to persist unpunished.

Habakkuk 1:13 tells us: "[God, your] eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You cannot look on wickedness with favor."

Psalm 5:5-7 “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. 5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.6 You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.”

Psalm 7:11 “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.”

Isaiah 5: 15 Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low.16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.”

My sin is a violation of God’s Holiness.

Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death.

Ephesians 2:1-3 says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

If the story ended there, my future would be very bleak. I praise God that the story continues….
Ephesians 2:4-10 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

I get to be with Him! My sin has been paid for and is no longer a barrier to relationship with Him! Nothing else matters.

Psalm 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."

Jude 1:24 "Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."

Revelation 21:2 "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. "

Revelation 21:-27 "And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life."


How do we benefit from this great salvation from the righteous wrath of God against our sins? It is not by our own merit, it is only by faith—believing in, trusting in, and surrendering to Jesus!

John 3:16-18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil."

Acts 16:25-34 "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God."

Ephesians 2: 8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Do you know this great salvation? Do you have faith in the Living God? Do you know and love Jesus, who came to save us?

Do you believe and trust in Him such that you want your life to revolve around knowing Him and obeying Him? Do you love Him like this?:

Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

If you don’t know Him and love Him in this way, are you curious? I encourage you to seek Him out. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you. He delights to answer this prayer! Open the Word, ask Him to speak to you in it and be willing to hear. If you know Christians who have extraordinary hope, joy and love, ask them about it. Ask questions.

This week is Holy Week. I pray that we will take time to reflect on the purpose of the Cross of Christ. Let us remember with thanksgiving and awe that our God loved us so much that He paid the ultimate price to restore us to Himself—so that we could enjoy relationship with our Glorious God forever!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for your Holiness, Righteousness, and Perfection! You are Glorious! Thank you that you are the epitome of all that is good and right. Thank you for revealing our sin to us, and in turn revealing your goodness toward us. Thank you for your mercy and lovingkindness--that you would seek us out even though we wickedly rebelled against you. Thank you for pursuing us at great cost to yourself. Thank you that justice and mercy met perfectly at the cross. Help us to live in remembrance of this reality. I pray for any who are curious about you. Holy Spirit please open eyes to see your beauty and truth—that all would know the hope, joy, and tremendous love that there is in you, and that all would respond in blissful surrender. I pray that you would draw many, many more to yourself. May those of us who trust in you reflect the love you have shown us to those around us! If we are not doing this, open our eyes, convict us, and enable us to repent and change. We love you, Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen.



I leave you with the Table of Contents from John Piper's book, "50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die" (By the way, I bought this whole book on compact disc at Lifeway Christian Bookstore on Aurora for $5.98, and you can also get it on http://www.desiringgod.org/ for $4.99)




1 To Absorb the Wrath of God

2 To Please His Heavenly Father

3 To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

4 To Achieve His Own Resurrection from the Dead

5 To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners

6 To Show His Own Love for Us

7 To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us

8 To Become a Ransom for Many

9 For the Forgiveness of Our Sins

10 To Provide the Basis for Our Justification

11 To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness

12 To Take Away Our Condemnation

13 To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation

14 To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful

15 To Make Us Holy, Blameless, and Perfect

16 To Give Us a Clear Conscience

17 To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us

18 To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness

19 To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him

20 To Deliver Us from the Present Evil Age

21 To Reconcile Us to God

22 To Bring Us to God

23 So That We Might Belong to Him

24 To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place

25 To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God

26 To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End and Become the Eternal High Priest

27 To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest

28 To Free Us from the Futility of Our Ancestry

29 To Free Us from the Slavery of Sin

30 That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness

31 So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God

32 To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves

33 To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting

34 To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him

35 To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning

36 To Create a People Passionate for Good Works

37 To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness and Costly Love

38 To Create a Band of Crucified Followers

39 To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death

40 So That We Would Be with Him Immediately After Death

41 To Secure Our Resurrection from the Dead

42 To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities

43 To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel

44 To Destroy the Hostility Between Races

45 To Ransom People from Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation

46 To Gather All His Sheep from Around the World

47 To Rescue Us from Final Judgment

48 To Gain His Joy and Ours

49 So That He Would Be Crowned with Glory and Honor

50 To Show That the Worst Evil Is Meant by God for Good

What is the Gospel Anyway?

The word “gospel” comes from the Greek word εὐαγγέλιον, euangelion (eu- "good", -aggello- "proclaim, tell) and it means good news or glad tidings.

Luke 2:8-12 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

From Luke 2, we know that the gospel has to do with Christ:

1) bringing joy to people
2) bringing glory to God
3) bringing peace to men with whom He is pleased (I want to add as a caveat here that we know he is only “pleased” with us through faith in Jesus and what Jesus did for us, not in our mere works apart from faith. We also know that our faith is not of ourselves but is a free gift of grace from Him. See, John 3:16; Ephesians 2: 8; Hebrews 11, etc.):

How does Christ bring joy to people, glory to God, and peace to men?

Here’s my attempt to summarize the gospel:

Our Trinitarian God is One God in three persons- Father, Son (Jesus) and Holy Spirit. God is perfect and is in eternal perfect loving community as Father, Son, and Spirit. God created man and woman in His image. Adam was the first man and Eve was the first woman. God was in relationship with them and they were in relationship with each other. In this, there was much joy for them and glory to God, who is the epitome of love and by whose character love is defined. Sin entered the world when Adam and Eve rebelled against God. Their sin destroyed the perfection of their community with God and each other. From then on, sin brought separation between human beings and our Righteous God, as evil does not dwell with our perfect God (Psalm 5). Sin also brought separation among human relationships, as sin defiles and begets more sin. Through Adam and Eve, all of humanity has inherited indwelling sin, making us sinful from our mothers' wombs. I am a sinner. The more I learn about God’s perfect goodness, the more I see how truly sinful I am in motive, thought, and deed, and how offensive my sin must be to God given how good He really is. God's just penalty for sin is death (Romans 6:23). The story sounds pretty bleak so far. Still, none of this happened apart from God's sovereign will. God's plan all along was to redeem. God the Father sent God the Son (Jesus) on a rescue mission. In love for His Father and for us, Jesus gave up His throne and humbled Himself to come to earth as a man so that He could live an exemplary sinless life and so that He could be the ultimate perfect sacrifice to satisfy the death penalty of sin on our behalf. Jesus died a horrific and cruel death for the ugliness of our sin. Jesus did this willingly in obedience to God the Father, enabled by God the Spirit. He did this to reconcile us to God, so that by faith in Jesus, we could enjoy relationship with Him (John 3:16). The Righteous One died for the unrighteous, so that we who made ourselves His enemies could be His friends through faith. This salvation is a free gift that we could never earn, and it is available to all who believe in Him. We demonstrate our faith in Him by confessing our sinfulness, acknowledging what He did for us, and living a life of trust in Him that leads to obedience to Him. Jesus’ death cleanses believers from the defilement of sin, so that there is no condemnation against us anymore! We are reconciled to God and we get to enjoy community with Him once more! Jesus gave access to the Holy Spirit for those who believe so that we could know God deeper and so that we could be gradually transformed by the Spirit from our sinful character into the character of Jesus. As we see God, His character, and His love, and as we are transformed into His image, we enjoy Him more and more and we have peace in Him. We have the joy of knowing that God is transforming us daily. We have joy as God allows us to participate in His work of loving others. God is glorified in His great expression of love, grace and mercy to us. God is glorified in the fact that justice has been done and sin has been paid for. God is glorified as we reflect His image in increasing measure. One day, our joy will be complete as we will get to enjoy relationship with Him eternally, no longer hindered by our sin and the effects of the fall. He will wipe away our every tear, and at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Now that's good news!