GOD OUR RESTORER

I read a story recently about a man and his family who were taking a trip to New Zealand.  They had always wanted to go, so they saved up their money for several years and took the trip.  During the flight, as they were filling out all the necessary customs and immigration forms, the husband was struck by something he read.  On one of the forms was the question of whether or not either one of them had ever been arrested.  Though this was a Christian couple, before coming to Christ the husband had spent over a year in jail for burglary. 

Wanting to be completely truthful on the form, the husband marked yes in the box.  When they arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, an officer in customs questioned the man about the offense.  He explained the story and also about how Christ had transformed his life.  Unfortunately, the customs officer had little interest in the second part of the story because they had one rule that said, “No one who had spent more than 12 months in jail in their home country, would be allowed into New Zealand.” 

As a result, this man had to say goodbye to his wife and kids and get on a plane and fly home.  It did not matter to those in the customs office what had taken place in this guy’s life, because of that one mess up, he would never be allowed into their country—it was a nonnegotiable.    

This sad story should remind us believers of a beautiful truth.  Though there was nothing that could be done for this man in this situation, though he could not clear his criminal record so that he could enter into this beautiful country with his family, spiritually his record had been expunged—removed—erased—wiped out.

Believers, though mistakes from our past will follow many of us until we die and though we encounter people in this life who will forever hold the past against us, praise the Lord that is not true of God and his dealings with us.

For more on this, click HERE and listen to “KNOWING JESUS AS OUR RESTORER.” 

"Quote" of the Week

"If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,  O Lord, who could stand?  But with you there is forgiveness." Psalm 130:3-4

When discussing the evidences for Jesus’ resurrection, many often make mention of the empty tomb and the various appearances of the Lord Jesus, but very few if any make mention of the future church.  In John 20:29, after appearing to a skeptical Thomas, Jesus says there is going to be a future group of believers who are going to believe in Him without seeing.  He tells Thomas, 

“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

And this group of future believers give strong evidence for Jesus’ resurrection.  Scripture is clear that those who have been saved—those who have taken a stand for Christ and continue standing for Him—those who are in Christ and live as Christ give strong evidence for His resurrection.

"Quote" of the Week

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."  Galatians 2:20

"TO PLEASE HIS HEAVENLY FATHER" by John Piper

Jesus did not wrestle his angry Father to the floor of heaven and take the whip out of his hand.  He did not force him to be merciful to humanity.  His death was not the begrudging consent of God to be lenient to sinners.  No, what Jesus did when he suffered and died was the Father’s idea.  It was a breathtaking strategy, conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned the history of the world.  That is why the Bible speaks of God’s “purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2 Timothy 1:9). 

Already in the Jewish Scriptures the plan was unfolding.  The prophet Isaiah foretold the sufferings of the Messiah, who was to take the place of sinners.  He said that the Christ would be “smitten by God” in our place.

 

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  (Isaiah 53:4-6)

But what is most astonishing about this substitution of Christ for sinners is that it was God’s idea.  Christ did not intrude on God’s plan to punish sinners.  God planned for him to be there.  One Old Testament prophet says, “It was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief” (Isaiah 53:10). 

This explains the paradox of the New Testament.  On the one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God’s wrath because of sin.  But on the other hand, Christ’s suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father.  So Christ cried from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).  And yet the Bible says that the suffering of Christ was a fragrance to God.  “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).  

Piper, John.  The Passion of Jesus Christ.  Wheaton:  Crossway Books.  2004.  22-23.

"Quote" of the Week

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  Ephesians 5:2

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Matthew 27:46

God the Father was the one who ultimately sent Christ to the cross and was the cause for all of the anguish he felt at Gethsemane and all of His suffering at Calvary.  And we do not just learn this in the Gospels, do we?  This was God’s plan from the beginning. 

In Isaiah 53:10, we learn that it pleased God—it was His will to crush His Son.  Why?  So that we could be accepted.  A glorious truth we learn here from Isaiah (Isa. 53) and Matthew (Mt. 27:46) and John (Jn. 18:11) and elsewhere is that God rejected His son for a time so that he would not have to reject us for all eternity.  Though all we like sheep have gone astray, though every one of us without exception have rejected God, He has responded by rejecting His son for a time so that he in turn could accept us forever.  THAT’S THE GOSPEL!

"Quote" of the Week

“There is no greater sin than to hate and kill the Son of God.  There was no greater suffering nor any greater innocence than the suffering and innocence of Christ.  Yet God was in it all.  'It was the will of the Lord to crush him' (Isaiah 53:10).  His aim, through evil and suffering, was to destroy evil and suffering.  'With his stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53:5).  Is not then the passion of Jesus Christ meant by God to show the world that there is no sin and no evil too great that God, in Christ, cannot bring from it everlasting righteousness and joy?"  -John Piper