Triumph in disguise

by Dan Phillips

Our church has an annual Sunrise Service, 6:30a.m. the morning of Resurrection Day. We meet out front under a massive oak tree. We always have a decent turnout, though I'm a bit bewildered each year to see a lot of people who don't usually attend our church turn up for the Sunrise Service, then not return for the full morning service.

At any rate, it features a briefer message, shouted to be heard over the traffic, not recorded. This is a post-ized version of this year's Sunrise Service.

Let's suppose a person who hasn't read the Bible, and doesn't much know what’s in it. That isn't so hard to imagine, these days, is it? (Some of you are saying "Yeah, in fact I know a pastor like that." Behave.)

So let's say this Biblically-untaught person was told that God would send His Son to solve the dilemma of our planet — what kind of scenario might he come up with? What script might he write? It isn't too hard to imagine, I think.

Our Script

The Elements In Our Script.  It's easy to envision three scenarios:

Scenario One: In this version, God the Son assumes a Christophany, a temporary appearance in human form. He rides down to earth in a chariot of fire, conquers all the sinners, and sets up His kingdom. And there we have our happy ending!

Scenario Two: Perhaps our tale-weaver is aware of Christmas, so in the second version, God the Son indeed takes on human flesh, and is born...into the family of a wealthy, influential nobleman. It's one of the leading families in Israel, so He grows, winning partisans from the nation, amassing a huge following made up of Jews and Gentiles alike.

Then, when He reaches manhood, He declares Himself King, smashes Rome, conquers all the sinners and sets up His kingdom. And there we have our happy ending!

Scenario Three: In this telling, God the Son doesn’t go anywhere. Why should He? He’s God the Son! He doesn’t have to leave His throne to get this done!

So, from His throne in Heaven, the Son of God simply exercises His power, conquers all the sinners and sets up His kingdom. And there, once again, we have our happy ending!

The Results Of Our Script. Now that you've read those all over, can you pick out the one recurring phrase in all three scenarios that poses just one itty-bitty problem for us, for you and for me?

It’s where I said, each time, “…conquers all the sinners and sets up His kingdom”

So here's the problem: How many of us are sinners? Correct: 100%.

We know that sin is a big deal to our holy, righteous God. So if we're going to avoid being conquered, we have to do something about our sin. What can we do? Repent? Lovely thought, but it won't do anything about past sin. If I owe you $500000, then say I'm sorry, I still owe you $500000. 

So how about if I become perfectly righteous and never sin again? That won't work, since that is what I was supposed to be all along.

Shall I offer a lamb or an ox? Can the blood of bulls and goats take away sin? No.

What this means, then, is this:

• Who would He have had to “conquer,” to set up His kingdom? Everyone. You. Me. All of us.
• Who would be left to populate His kingdom? No one. Not me. Not you. None of us.

Now we're ready better to appreciate, by contrast...

God’s Script (Philippians 2:5-11)

This script unfolds in two grand movements.

Christ Humbled Himself (vv. 5-8). So far from riding in as conquering King, Christ lowered Himself to a virtually unimaginable degree, and that in two ways:

By incarnation (vv. 5-7).

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷ but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

Incarnation was not a promotion for the Logos. It was a step down of infinite degree. But that isn't the full extent of it.

By crucifixion (v. 8).

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He died a death of such obscenity that Roman citizens wouldn't mention it in polite company, a death experienced only by the lowest, most contemptible dregs. A Roman would no more wear a cross around his neck than we would wear an aborted fetus or some other obscenity around ours.

Yet this is what He did, because this was the only way to deal with the sin problem. [I developed this theme much more fully in the morning service, a sermon titled Easter Certainties.]

God Exalted Christ (vv. 9-11). 

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

As a consequence of His death on the Cross, Jesus Christ won the right to give repentance and saving faith to His people, to give forgiveness of sins, and to grant eternal life. And because of the suffering of death, He will indeed will rule and reign.

And the only reason the God-man can do that is because of the DISASTER of the Cross! It is as Herbert Schlossberg said: “The Bible can be interpreted as a string of God’s triumphs disguised as disasters” (Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 304, quoted by Doug Wilson).

The greatest disaster in all of history was the crucifixion of Jesus. And yet, that greatest disaster is the key and foundation to the ultimate victory! That is God's scenario.

So what happened on Good Friday was God’s plan, what happened on holy Saturday was God’s plan, and what happened on Resurrection Sunday was God’s plan. We serve a crucified, buried, and risen Savior.  And because He is all that, we are citizens of His coming kingdom.

All because of Jesus' triumph in disguise.

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"...he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..."

by Dan Phillips

(continued from here)

...how could the observers on earth know that this sacrifice had been accepted by the Father? How can you and I know that our sins are finally and fully dealt with by Christ‘s Cross? How do we know that the eternal plan worked?

Our answer comes with the aftermath.

Jesus Accomplished His Work by His Bodily Resurrection 


"Resurrection" doesn‘t mean anything unless it is a bodily resurrection. The Greek word very literally means to "stand back up." What is it that stands back up if not the body that had lain down in death?

So it was in Jesus‘ case. His body was nailed to the cross. His body died. His body was pierced with a spear, and shed blood and water (John 19:34). His body was taken down from the cross, wrapped in linen, and laid in a tomb (Mark 15:46).

If Jesus did not rise bodily, He did not rise in any meaningful sense of the word.

Ah, but what did the women come seeking on that Sunday morning? They sought His body for further burial treatment. And what did they not find? His body (Luke 24:3).

The body was missing, though the grave clothes were left behind (John 20:6–7).

And what was it they encountered that convinced them of Jesus‘ victory over death? The living, resurrected, glorified body of the Lord Jesus. In fact, though cults and false teachers have sought out ways to deny it, the historical narratives go to great pains to stress the physical, material reality of Jesus‘ resurrected body. He still bears the trophies of His contest (Luke 24:40; John 20:27), He can be touched (Matt. 28:9), He eats (Luke 24:41–43)—He has flesh and bones (Luke 24:39). Though His glorified body could be called a "spiritual body" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:44), it is a body, nonetheless.

But why was it important for Jesus to rise from the dead in a material body?

First, this is what Jesus predicted. At the very outset of His public ministry, Jesus announced that He would raise up the "temple" that the Jews tore down (John 2:19). Though His hearers thought He spoke of the physical temple building, He was speaking of the temple of His body (John 2:21). That body would be torn down; and that same body would be raised up. The same body that was whipped, beaten, and mortally
crucified, would rise (Matt. 20:18–19). If that did not happen, Jesus‘ prediction was false, and His whole case is undone.

Second, Jesus‘ bodily resurrection would prove to be the ultimate divine validation of Jesus‘ person and work (Rom. 1:4). Think it through. What would God have had to do to the dead body of Jesus in order to invalidate everything He said? The answer? Nothing! Simply let Jesus‘ corpse lie there dead, as corpses have characteristically done since Adam, and the entire structure of Jesus‘ claims would collapse with a horrendous crash. Jesus‘ resurrection is His Father‘s seal of approval on everything He said and did.

Third (and central for our purpose here), His resurrection shows that His sacrifice for us was accepted. As Paul puts it, Jesus "was delivered on account of our trespasses, and was raised on account of our justification‖ (Rom. 4:25 DJP ). "On account of"—in other words, the resurrection of Jesus attests the fact that God had declared His people righteous because of Jesus‘ sacrifice. We are not justified by His resurrection; His
resurrection proves that we are justified by His death.

Unless Satan can get Jesus back in the tomb—and I don‘t see that happening—I know that God sees me as righteous for Jesus' sake.

(from The World-Tilting Gospel, 128-130)

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Atonement

Your weekly dose of Spurgeon
posted by Phil Johnson




The PyroManiacs devote some space each weekend to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. The following excerpt is from "Christ's Great Mission," a sermon preached at some unknown time at The Metropolitan Tabernacle, London, published on Thursday, 5 October 1916, almost a quarter century after Spurgeon's death.




an is not delivered from the bondage of his sins without a price. No one goes free by the naked mercy of God. Every captive exposed to God's vengeance must be redeemed before he is delivered, otherwise he must continue a captive.

Broad as the statement may appear, I venture to assert by divine warrant that there never was beneath the cope of heaven a sin forgiven without satisfaction being rendered. No sin against God is pardoned with out a propitiation. It is only forgiven through the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. It never can be remitted without the penalty having been exacted. The divine law knows of no exception or exemption.

The statute is absolute, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Every soul that ever sinned, or ever shall sin, must die, die eternally, too, either in itself or in its substitute. The justice of the law must be vindicated. God waives none of the rights of justice in order to give liberty to mercy.

Oh! my hearers, if you are trusting in the unconditional mercy of God, you are trusting in a myth. Has someone buoyed you up with the thought of the infinite goodness of God, I would remind you of his infinite holiness. Hath he not declared that he will by no means spare the guilty? No debt due to God is remitted unless it be paid. It must either be paid by the transgressor in the infinite, miseries of hell, or else it must be paid for him by a substitute. There must be a price for the ransom, and evidently, according to the text, that price must be a soul, a life. Christ did not give his body merely, nor his stainless character, nor merely his labors and sufferings, but he gave his soul, his life, a ransom. Oh! sinner, Almighty God will never be satisfied with anything less than thy soul.

Canst thou bear the piercing thought that thy soul shall be cast from his presence for ever? Wouldst thou escape the dire penalty, thou must find another soul to stand In thy soul's stead. Thy life is forfeited. The sentence is passed. Thou shalt die. Death is thy doom. Die thou must, for ever die unless thou canst find another life for a sacrifice in lieu of thy life. But know that this is just what Christ has found. He has put a soul, a life, into the place of our souls, our lives.

How memorable that text, "Without shedding of blood there is no remission." Why? Because "the blood is the life thereof." Until the blood flows. the soul is not divided from the body. The shedding of the blood indicated that the soul—the essence of the being—had been offered. Oh! blessed, for ever blessed be the crowned head of him who once did bear the cross! He hath offered for his people a soul, a life, a matchless soul, a life unparalleled. No more can justice require; vengeance is satisfied; the price is paid; the redeemed of the Lord are completely free!

The question has been asked, "If we be redeemed by the blood of Christ, who receives the ransom?" Some; have talked as if Christ paid a price to the devil. A more absurd imagination could never have crossed human mind. We never belonged to the devil. Satan has no rights in us. Christ never acknowledged that he had any, and would never pay him anything. What then? Surely the ransom price was paid to the Great Judge of all. This is, of course, but a mystical way of speaking. A metaphor is employed to bring out the meaning.

The fact is that God had sworn, and would not repent, that sin must be punished. In the very essence of things it was right that transgression should meet with its just recompense There could be no moral government kept up, there could be no unimpeachable governor, unless conviction followed crime and retribution was exacted of the guilty. It was not right, nor could it have been righteous, on any ground, for sin to have been passed over without its having been punished, or for iniquity to have escaped without any infliction. But when Jesus Christ comes and puts his own sufferings into the place of our sufferings, the law is fully vindicated, while mercy is fitly displayed. A man dies; a soul is given; a life is offered—the Just for the unjust.

What if I say that, instead of justice being less satisfied with the death of Christ than with the deaths of the ten thousand thousands of sinners for whom he died, it is more satisfied and it is most highly honored! Had all the sinners that ever lived in the world been consigned to hell, they could not have discharged the claims of justice. They must still continue to endure the scourge of crime they could never expiate. But the Son of God, blending the infinite majesty of his Deity with the perfect capacity to suffer as a man, offered an atonement of such inestimable value that he has absolutely paid the entire debt for his people. Well may justice be content since it has received more from the Surety than it could have ever exacted from the assured. Thus the debt was paid to the Eternal Father.

Once more. What is the result of this? The result is that the man is redeemed. He is no longer a slave. Some preachers and professors affect to believe in a redemption which I must candidly confess I do not understand; it is so indistinct and indefinite—a redemption which does not redeem anybody in particular, though it is alleged to redeem everybody in general; a redemption insufficient to exempt thousands of unhappy souls from hell after they have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus; a redemption, indeed, which does not actually save anybody, because it is dependent for its efficacy upon the will of the creature; a redemption that lacks intrinsic virtue and inherent power to redeem anybody, but is entirely dependent upon an extraneous contingency to render it effectual. With such fickle theories I have no fellowship.

That every soul for whom Christ shed his blood as a Substitute, he will claim as his own, and have as his right, I firmly hold. I love to hold and I delight to proclaim this precious truth. Not all the powers of earth or hell; not the obstinacy of the, human will, nor the deep depravity of the human mind, can ever prevent Christ seeing of the travail of his soul and being satisfied. To the last jot and tittle of his reward shall he receive it at the Father's hand. A redemption that does redeem, a redemption that redeems many, seems to me infinitely better than a redemption that does not actually redeem anybody, but is supposed to have some imaginary influence upon all the sons of men.

Our last question I must leave with yourselves to answer. Did Jesus Christ redeem you? Ah! dear hearer, this is a serious matter. Art thou a redeemed soul or not? It is not possible for thee to turn over the books of destiny and read between the folded leaves. Neither needest thou wish to do so. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ which is to be preached to every creature under heaven, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved "; therefore, everyone that believeth and is baptized, being saved, must have been redeemed, for he could not have been saved otherwise. If thou believest and art baptized, thou art redeemed, thou art saved.

Now for thine answer to the question—Dost thou believe?

"I believe," says one, and he begins to repeat what they call the Apostle's Creed."

Hold your tongue, sir! That matters not; the devil believes that, perhaps more intelligently than you do; he believes and trembles. That kind of believing saves no man. You may believe the most orthodox creed in Christendom, and perish. Dost thou trust—if or that is the cream of the word "believe"—dost thou trust in Jesus? Dost thou lean thy whole weight on him? Hast thou that faith which the Puritans used to call "recumbency" or "leaning"? That is the faith that saves—faith that falls back into the arms of Jesus, a faith that drops from its own hanging-place into those mighty arms, and rests upon the tender breast of the Lord Jesus the Crucified.

Oh! my soul, make sure that thou dost trust him, for thou hast made sure of everything else when thou hast made sure of that. Has God the Holy Spirit taught you, my dear hearer, that you cannot safely rely on your own good works? Has he weaned you from resting upon mere ceremonies? Has he brought you to look to the cross—to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ alone? If so, Christ redeemed you; you can never be a slave again.

Has he redeemed you? The liberty of the believer is yours now, and after death the glory of Christ shall be your portion too Remember the words of the dying monk when putting aside the extreme unction and all the paraphernalia of his Church, he lifted up his eyes and said, "Tua vulnara, Jesu! tua vulnara Jesu!" "Thy wounds, oh, Jesu! thy wounds, oh, Jesu!" This must be your refuge, poor broken-winged dove. Fly thither into the clefts of the rock, into the spear—thrust in the Savior's heart. Fly there. Rest on him; rest on him; rest with all your weight of sin, with all your blackness and your foulness, with all your doubts and your despairs, rest on him Jesus wants to receive you; fly to him—fly away to him now:—

"Come, guilty souls, and fly away,
And look to Jesu's wounds;
This is the accepted gospel day,
Wherein free grace abounds.
God loved his Church and gave his Son
To drink the cup of wrath;
And Jesus says he'll cast out none
Who come to him in faith."

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He Made Him to Be Sin for Us

Who Killed Jesus?

Isaiah prophesied a clear answer to that question several centuries before the crucifixion.

(First posted 12 June 1996)

by John MacArthur

The murder of Jesus was a vast conspiracy involving Rome, Herod, the Gentiles, the Jewish Sanhedrin, and the people of Israel—diverse groups who were seldom fully in accord with one another. In fact, it is significant that the crucifixion of Christ is the only historical event where all those factions worked together to achieve a common goal. All were culpable. All bear the guilt together. The Jews as a race were no more or less blameworthy than the Gentiles.

This is very plainly stated in Acts 4:27, a corporate prayer offered in an assembly of the very earliest believers: "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together." So there is no justification whatsoever for trying to fix the blame for Jesus' death on any one people group. This was, in essence, a corporate act of sinful humanity against God. All are guilty together.

And yet even that does not exhaust the full truth about who killed Jesus. Scripture emphasizes from cover to cover that the death of Christ was ordained and appointed by God Himself. One of the key Old Testament prophecies about the crucifixion is Isaiah 53. Isaiah prophetically describes the torture of the Messiah at the hands of a scoffing mob, and then adds, "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief" (Isaiah 53:10).

God put his own Son to death?

That is precisely what Scripture teaches. Why? According to Isaiah 53:10, it was to "make His soul an offering for sin." God had a redemptive purpose.

The designs of those who killed Christ were entirely murderous. They are by no means exonerated from their evil, just because God's purposes are good. It was still the act of "lawless hands" (Acts 2:23). It was, as far as the human perpetrators were concerned, an act of pure evil. The wickedness of the crucifixion is in no sense mitigated by the fact that God sovereignly ordained it for good. The truth that it was His sovereign plan makes the deed itself no less a diabolical act of murder.

And yet this was clearly God's holy and sovereign plan from before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Look again at that prayer from Acts 4, this time in its full context:

Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: "Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things? The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD and against His Christ." For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done (Acts 4:24-28, emphasis added).

Acts 2:23 echoes the same thought: "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death" (emphasis added).

God ordained the murder of Jesus. Or to put it starkly in the words of Isaiah 53:10, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

In what sense was God pleased by the death of his Son?

He was pleased by the redemption that was accomplished. He was pleased that His eternal plan of salvation was thus fulfilled. He was pleased with the sacrifice of his Son, who died so that others might have eternal life. He was pleased to display his righteous anger against sin in such a graphic way. He was pleased to demonstrate His love for sinners through such a majestic sacrifice.

For all the evil in the crucifixion, it brought about an infinite good. In fact, here was the most evil act ever perpetrated by sinful hearts: The sinless Son of God—holy God Himself in human flesh—was unjustly killed after being subjected to the most horrific tortures that could be devised by wicked minds. It was the evil of all evils, the worst deed human depravity could ever devise, and the most vile evil that has ever been committed. And yet from it came the greatest good of all time—the redemption of unnumbered souls.

The cross is therefore the ultimate proof of the utter sovereignty of God. His purposes are always fulfilled in spite of the evil intentions of sinners. God even works His righteousness through the evil acts of unrighteous agents. Far from making Him culpable for their evil, this demonstrates how all He does is good, and how He is able to work all things together for good (Romans 8:28)—even the most wicked deed the powers of evil have ever conspired to carry out.

John MacArthur

This article was excerpted John MacArthur, The Murder of Jesus (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2002).

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Easter in 2:12

Courtesy of WretchedNetwork
As preached by Matt Chandler

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What the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ means to me

by Frank Turk

I press on to make the resurrection my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. I don’t consider that I can take it by my own power. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. For me, His resurrection is hope for what I cannot do for myself, but which will bring me the greatest joy in spite of both my failings and my successes. That will be a great day.

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What the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ means to me (DJP)

by Dan Phillips

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is the lynch-pin of everything I believe and hope, everything on which I build my life. No isolated event, it was framed by centuries of increasingly specific prophecy and types, capped with the indisputably miraculous life of Jesus Christ. It means what He said it would mean. It is the vindication of His claim to be the way, the truth and the life. It is how I know that I am forgiven, reconciled, counted righteous, and assured of Heaven through repentant faith alone. It is that without which there is nothing, to me.

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Jesus began telling his disciples

by Frank Turk

When Jesus and his disciples were near the town of Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, "What do people say about the Son of Man?"

The disciples answered, "Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah or Jeremiah or some other prophet." Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter spoke up, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Jesus told him:

Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn't discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. So I will call you Peter, which means "a rock." On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and God in heaven will allow whatever you allow on earth. But he will not allow anything that you don't allow.

Jesus told his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. From then on, Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, "I must go to Jerusalem. There the nation's leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make me suffer terribly. I will be killed, but three days later I will rise to life."

Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. He said, "God would never let this happen to you, Lord!"

Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Satan, get away from me! You're in my way because you think like everyone else and not like God."

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