The biblical story has a clear beginning.  Out of nothing whatsoever, God created a beautiful world and placed Adam and Eve in it.  They were perfect people, living in a full and complete relationship of love, obedience, and worship with the Creator.  They had everything they could ever need or want.  Adam and Eve were God’s image bearers, appointed by God to be resident managers over the world he had created.

But Adam and Eve were not content to worship and obey God.  In a shocking act of disobedience, they stepped outside of God’s place. This defiance opened the floodgates of sin and destruction onto the once perfect earth.  The fellowship between God and man was horribly broken.  Fear, guilt, and rebellion replaced love, worship and obedience.  All of creation was cursed with weeds, decay, and disease.  But God was not content to let things remain broken.  He declared war on sin and sent his Son to earth to win the final victory on the cross.  He now applies the results of that victory to his sin-scarred children and his sin-marred earth.

When the biblical story ends, God will defeat every last enemy, the final enemy being death.  We will become like God and live with him forever.  This is important for three reasons:

1.     If you want to go in the right direction, know your final destination.

2.     The details of your life only make sense when viewed from the perspective of eternity.

3.     Eternity teaches us what is really important in life.

The Bible is a storybook that gives us everything from our origin to our ultimate destiny.  God opens up the last chapter of the story for us and invites us to look in, to listen, and then to look back on our lives.  The purpose of Scriptures like Revelation is not to provide maps and charts to determine when Christ’s return will take place.  No, Revelation is in the Bible to help us understand our final destination, and thereby make sense of our lives here and now.

The biblical story makes no sense without eternity.  There had to be a better end than what we are living in right now!  Sin has to be conquered.  People have to be purified.  The cosmos has to be restored.  Anything less would be a universal defeat.  All the suffering, brokenness, trail, sacrifice, and battle would make no sense.  Paul says it powerfully in 1 Corinthians 15:19, ‘If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.’  If God isn’t taking us somewhere, following Christ has been a colossal waste of time. There has to be more than this – and there is!”

Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change. (Greensboro, NC:  New Growth Press, 2008), p37-38.

Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change. (Greensboro, NC:  New Growth Press, 2008), p6.

This redefinition of the faith does not happen all at once. It may not even surface in the public theological discussions of the church. Rather, the redefinition is a process of subtle steps at the practical level of the church’s fellowship, life, and ministry. Hope in Christ gets replaced with Christian activity, emotional experiences, Christians fellowship, or something else, without anyone consciously redefining or forsaking the faith…

The gospel does call me to lead a godly life and to gather with God’s people for worship. God will meet me in special ways at certain times. The gospel does call me to influence the world for good, to love truth, and to meditate on it. God is a God of comfort who meets us in all our sorrows. We are to be enthusiastic participants in the fellowship of the body of Christ.

The danger occurs when we reduce the gospel to any one of these elements. Whenever I do, my Christianity is no longer motivated by a humble admission of my daily need for Christ  and a humble pursuit of his grace. Things that are intended to be the means of this pursuit instead become the ends. For example, the goal of understanding the truths of the gospel is to have a deeper relationship with Christ. But when theological knowledge becomes the goal, Christ is displaced.”

Timothy S. Lane & Paul David Tripp, How People Change. (Greensboro, NC:  New Growth Press, 2008), p 11.

Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood;
Thou savest those that on Thee call;
To them that seek Thee Thou art good,
To them that find Thee all in all.

We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Our restless spirits yearn for Thee,
Wherever our changeful lot is cast;
Glad when Thy gracious smile we see,
Blessed when our faith can hold Thee fast.

O Jesus, ever with us stay,

Make all our moments calm and bright;
Chase the dark night of sin away,
Shed over the world Thy holy light.

Bernard of Clairvaux, ”Jesus Thou Joy of Loving Hearts” 12th Century (Jesu dulcis memoria)

“Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. It is a very surprising thing – a thing to be marveled at most of all by those who enjoy it.  I know that it is to me even to this day the greatest wonder that I have ever heard of, that God should ever justify me. I feel myself to be a lump of unworthiness, a mass of corruption, and a heap of sin, apart from His almighty love.  I know by a full assurance that I am justified by faith, which is in Christ Jesus, and treated as if I had been perfectly just, and made an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ; and yet by nature I must take my place among the most sinful.  I, who am altogether undeserving, am treated as if I had been deserving.  I am loved with as much love as if I had always been godly, whereas aforetime I was ungodly.  Who can help being astonished by this?  Gratitude for such favour stands dressed in robes of wonder.“

I thank thee from the depths of my being for thy wondrous grace and love in bearing my sin in thine own body on the tree.  May the cross be to me as the tree that sweetens my bitter Marahs, as the rod that blossoms with life and beauty, as the brazen serpent that calls forth the look of faith.

By thy cross crucify my every sin; Use it to increase my intimacy with thyself; Make it the ground of all my comfort, the liveliness of all my duties, the sum of all thy gospel promises, the comfort of all  my afflictions, the vigour of my love, thankfulness, graces, the very essence of my religion; And by it give me that rest without rest, the rest of ceaseless praise.

O My Lord and Saviour,

Thou hast also appointed a cross for me to take up and carry, a cross before thou givest me a crown.  Thou hast appointed it to be my portion, but self-love hates it, carnal reason is unreconciled to it; without the grace of patience I cannot bear it, walk with it, profit by it.

O blessed cross, what mercies dost thou bring with thee!  Thou art only esteemed hateful by my rebel will, heavy because I shirk thy load.  Teach me, gracious Lord and Saviour, that with my cross thou sendest promised grace so that I may bear it patiently, that my crosss is thy yoke which is easy, and thy burden which is light.

- The Valley of Vision: A collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions.  (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1975), p312-313.

I see myself as God sees me – a sinner.  There is no escaping the truth: ‘No one is righteous, not even one’ (Rom 3:9-18).  In response to my sin, the cross has criticized and judged me more intensely, deeply, pervasively, and truly than anyone else ever ould.  This knowledge permits us to say to all other criticism of us:  ’This is just a fraction of it.’

Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law (Gal 3:10).  Forever whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10).

By faith, I affirm God’s judgment on myself, that I am a sinner.  I also believe that the answer to my sin lies in the cross.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live (Gal 2:20).  For we know that our old self was crucified with him (Jesus) so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin (Rom 6:6).

If the cross says anything, it speaks about my sin.  The person who says ‘I have been crucified with Christ’ is a person well aware of his sinfulness.  You’ll never get life right by your own unaided efforts because all who rely on observing the law are under a curse. ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’ (Gal 3:10).  Thus the cross doesn’t merely criticize or judge us, it condemns us for not doing everything written in God’s law…

The crucified person also knows that he cannot defend himself against God’s judgment by trying to offset his sin by his good works.  Think about this fact:  whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10).  To claim to be a Christian is to agree with all God says about our sin.  As a person ‘crucified with Christ,’ we admit, agree, and approve of God’s judgment against us: There is no one righteous, not even one (Rom 3:10).

Second, In Christ’s Cross I agree with God’s Justification of Me.

I must not only agree with God’s judgment of me as sinner in the cross of Christ, but I must also agree with God’s justification of me as sinner.  Through the sacrificial love of Jesus, God justifies ungodly people (Rom 3:21-26). But the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20).  My goal is to boast in Christ’s righteousness, not my own.

No one will be declared righteous in his (God’s) sight by observing the law (Rom 3:20).  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe (Rom 3:22).

Pride breeds quarrels, says Solomon.  Quarrels are often over who is right.  Quarrels erupt in our idolatrous demand for self-justification.  But not if I am applying the cross.  For the cross not only declares God’s just verdict against me as a sinner, but His declaration of righteousness by grace through faith in Christ.

The cross of Christ reminds me that the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me.  And because of this, God has thoroughly and forever accepted me in Christ.  Here is how grace works:  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who hung on a tree.’  He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (Gal 3:13f).  What a sure foundation for the soul! Now, I don’t practice self-justification, but boasting – boasting about Christ’s righteousness for me.”

“Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; Do not let my head refuse it”

Psalm 141:5

Alfred J. Poirier, “The Cross and Criticism,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 17, no. 3 (Spring 1999): 18.

John Wesley, Holy Club Questions (accessed 8 February 2010); available from

http://www.nypub.com/camdenwesleyan/new_page_2.htm

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.

William Cowper, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way” Olney Hymns (1779).

We have rejected Him for other pleasures. We rebelled against his design for our lives and separated ourselves from Him. We have fallen short of the purpose for which we were created. On account of our sin, we deserve nothing before God. He could punish us forever for the evil we have done. And we are unable to rescue ourselves from our desperate condition.

But what has God done?

God, being rich with mercy, has done what we could not do. He has sent His loved one, His Son, Jesus Christ into the world to die on the cross for our sin.

Yes, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that through Him we might be right with God. Jesus died on that cross and was resurrected, offering life beyond the grave to those who trust in Him. And now, by faith in Christ’s finished work on our behalf, we gain immeasurable blessings.

Christ has completely forgiven us of all our sin. He has redeemed from our bondage to sin and freed us from sin’s guilt. We gain assurances of His love in His Spirit. He has brought us into friendship with God and we are adopted as God’s children. We are considered right with God because of Jesus. And we have hope of a better day coming when Christ, who is reigning over all, will come again for his people. The work of Christ enables us to rejoice in this wonderful God, by whom and for whom we were made.

Hallelujah! All glory be to God.