Page CXVI

Check out the latest from a band that I have really come to enjoy lately - Page CXVI. Take a listen here. If you like them, stop on by their site and pick up a digital copy or a CD.

Great Words on the Atonement from Dr. Nettles

If Christ has suffered for sins, and God's wrath has received a just settlement, then something objective has taken place, and all the benefits caused by Christ's death must be given, lest punishment be inflicted without corresponding release of Christ's soul experience travail without satisfaction.

-Thomas Nettles, A Foundation for the Future (49)

Amen.  Christ objectively secured salvation for sinners at the cross.  He is most certainly our sufficient savior and redeemer.

Consistently Pro-life

Without getting into too many specifics, or getting too political, I think it is safe to say that a great many Christians are pro-life.  (I count myself among them.)  Certainly there are many Christians who are pro-choice, but from what I can tell, the general trend in American Christian culture seems to be a bent toward the pro-life side of things.

But that's not what this post is about.

This post is about diving deeper into the foundations behind "pro-life".  And specifically, from a Christian worldview, that foundation would be that every person is made in God's image (Genesis 1:27).  Made specifically and lovingly by God, with intentionality (Psalm 139:13-16).

Thus, the conclusion comes, if all people are created in God's image, possessing the inherent dignity that that entails, then they have a right to life from the moment they are conceived.

But again, that's not what this post is about....

I am writing this because I have noticed a trend in my life.  Namely - the tendency be terribly inconsistent in my pro-life views.  To be inconsistent in my ability to see and recognize and respect the image of God that people bear.

In an instant, I find myself jumping to the defense of unborn children.  Why?  Because they are created in the image of God.  The possess an inherent human dignity.  Children must not be sacrificed on the altar of convenience.  And, in my opinion, this is a good response to have to the idea of abortion.

But what I have realized lately is that my own life betrays this very worldview.  I may see and defend the human rights of an unborn child, proclaiming that they are a person, and not a means to an end.  But then, the very next instant, I walk into the grocery store and go to the checkout counter.  The clerk scans my things, runs my card, and sends me on my way.  And I walk out - all the while, completely oblivious to the fact that I just interacted with a person.  A human.  Bearing God's image.  Possessing the dignity of human life.

Or I will call a company for customer service.  And on the other end of the line, someone picks up.  How often do I see that someone as a person?  A mother, with children?  A husband, with a wife?  Far too often, I see them as a means to an end.  My stupid gadget broke, and I want you to send me a new one.  And do it fast, because I have been on hold a while, and I am a busy guy.

Which brings me to what this post is about.  I want to affirm and celebrate and cherish and declare the dignity of human life.  Because humans are created in the image of God.  But I want to do so consistently.

Not just with regard to unborn children.  But with servers in restaurants.  With illegal immigrants.   With other drivers in traffic.  With telemarketers.  With the guy in front of me in line at the post office.  With the person who speaks English as a second language.  With the woman who has had an abortion.

Would that I, and we, see the dignity of all persons - born and unborn.  May we see all people as created intentionally by God, bearing His image.  Loved by Him.  May we see them as people for whom Christ died.

Would that we be consistently pro-life.

We can't pass along what we don't possess.

With all the talk on cultural transformation that can be heard and read today, I found these words from my friend/former boss/former discipler to be particularly insightful:

What will we do to turn this around?  I've got an idea.  How about you and I spend some time with Jesus in His Bible today?  We can't pass along to our culture what we do not possess.  They need the True Jesus, in all His Courageous Glory.  We can't bring the True Jesus to our culture if we don't know/experience/be overwhelmed by the True Jesus.

Amen.

Ministry starts with knowing God through Christ.  Transforming the culture with the gospel starts with believing and experiencing the gospel ourselves.  It starts with personal repentance and faith in Jesus.  If we want to change our culture, a great place to start is by being reconciled to God through Christ, and then by growing in our understanding of and our appreciation for the grace that God has given us.  Only then will we be in a position to impact others for Christ.

Check out Dan Flynn's blog for some more great insight.  It comes highly recommended.

Come to Jesus just as you are

Robert Traill discusses justification, and how we come to Christ just as we are.  Sinners do not save themselves.  They are saved by Jesus.

Shall we tell men that unless they are holy they must not believe on Jesus Christ?  That they must not venture on Christ for salvation till they are qualified and fit to be recieved and welcomed by him?  This would be to forbear preaching the gospel at all, or to forbid all men to believe on Christ.  For never was any sinner qualified for Christ.  He is qualified for us (1 Corinthians 1:30); but a sinner out of Christ has no qualification for Christ but sin and misery.  Whence should we have any better, but in and from Christ?  Nay, suppose an impossibility, that a man were qualified for Christ; I boldly assert that such a man would not, nor could ever, believe on Christ.  For faith is a lost, helpless condemned sinner's casting himself on Christ for salvation; and the qualified man is not such a person.

-Justification Vindicated (p. 20)

In the words of Joseph Hart, "If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all."

Why Spoiled Milk is a Blessing

Let this be known right from the start.  I love cereal.  For a 26 year old single dude, it is practically a food group.  A bowl packed full of sugary goodness, and then milk - which makes it healthy.  Can't beat it.

With that said, this has happened to me twice this past month.  Twice, I have poured an awesome bowl of cereal, reached for a gallon of milk (still well within it's date), and then watched horrified as a disgusting cottage-cheese-esque consistency plops onto my aforementioned bowl.  What a kick in the face on a Saturday night with a steel-toed grip kodiak work boot.  And this last time, I was literally looking forward to that Cinnamon Toast Crunch for the previous three hours.

After the second incident, I found myself particularly grumpy.  I sat in my dorm room wallowing in self-pity.  I mean, I don't ask for much.  Just the occasional blessed bowl of Frosted Flakes.....

Later, however, as I was reflecting on the situation, my perspective changed a little.  Sure, it sucks to miss out on that last third of a gallon of milk.  And sure, it sucks to lose a bowl of cereal.  But, essentially, here was the problem I was experiencing.  I had too much food.

Think about it.  I literally had so much food at my disposal that I could not eat it all before it went bad.  At any given moment of the day, I had access to limitless options of what to eat.  And not only could I obtain virtually any kind of food that I desired, but I had a refrigerator packed full of foods right in my home.  So much that I couldn't even eat it all before it went bad.  Not a bad problem, considering the alternative.  I could be starving to death.  I could not know where my next meal is coming from.

It reminds me of this prophetic verse in Amos 9:13:

"The days are coming," declares the LORD, 

"when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman 

and the planter by the one treading grapes. 

New wine will drip from the mountains 

and flow from all the hills."

This verse is describing a time in which God blesses his people so abundantly that they can't even handle the ridiculous amounts of provision.  The guy harvesting the crop can't even handle his job!  He probably keeps going back and forth to the storehouse to drop off huge amounts of crops.  And he is so overwhelmed by the harvest that the guy coming behind him planting seeds for next year catches up to him!  Unbelievable.

Back to my cereal story.  Here I was getting upset over spoiled milk, when really, my problem was that I was being blessed too much!  It's not that I was running out of milk for my cereal.  I had too much on hand to even consume it all before it spoiled.  Like Israel in Amos 9, I was being blessed so richly by God that I couldn't even handle it.  My cup was running over.

Just a thought for the next time something annoying happens to me, or to you.  Would that we consider the innumerable ways that God has blessed us.  The immeasurable gifts of grace that He has extended to us.  Not the least of which is the death of Christ on the cross on our behalf.

Would that we realize how blessed we are.  That we would repent of our selfishness, trust in Christ, and walk in a continual state of gratitude.

A Devotion from Spurgeon

This is one of the best devotionals I have ever read:

"Here is the man!"—John 19:5

If there is one place where our Lord Jesus most fully becomes the joy and comfort of His people, it is where He plunged deepest into the depths of woe. Come here, gracious souls, and behold the Man in the garden of Gethsemane; behold His heart so brimming with love that He cannot hold it in - so full of sorrow that it must find a vent. Behold the bloody sweat as it distils from every pore of His body, and falls upon the ground. Behold the Man as they drive the nails into His hands and feet. Look up, repenting sinners, and see the sorrowful image of your suffering Lord. See Him, as the ruby drops stand on the thorny crown, and adorn with priceless gems the diadem of the King of Misery. Behold the Man when all His bones are out of joint, and He is poured out like water and brought into the dust of death; God has forsaken Him, and hell compasses Him about. Behold and see, was there ever sorrow like His sorrow that is done to Him? All you that pass by draw near and look upon this spectacle of grief, unique, unparalleled, a wonder to men and angels, a prodigy unmatched. Behold the Emperor of Woe who had no equal or rival in His agonies! Gaze upon Him, you mourners, for if there is no consolation in a crucified Christ there is no joy in earth or heaven. If in the ransom price of His blood there is no hope, you harps of heaven, there is no joy in you, and the right hand of God shall know no pleasures for evermore. We have only to sit more continually at the foot of the cross to be less troubled with our doubts and woes. We have but to see His sorrows, and our sorrows we shall be ashamed to mention; we have but to gaze into His wounds and heal our own. If we would live properly, it must be by the contemplation of His death; if we would rise to dignity, it must be by considering His humiliation and His sorrow.

-Charles Spurgeon
(Morning and Evening, evening of July 22)