The Reformation Study Bible
The
Reformation Study Bible
is a goldmine of information, commentary,
random observation, and quick reference. Before I added my
two-cents’-worth to the review pile, I wanted to spend a number of
weeks using it as a both a study tool and devotional aid. In order to
facilitate this, I actually purchased the
digital version from Nelson
rather than the print version. My Bible study is primarily done within
the
Libronix Digital Library System (
logos.com), so this was the most useful format
for me. Therefore, my comments relate to content and not presentation
in the book format.
First off, I am glad that the
Reformation Study Bible is offered with
the
ESV translation of the Bible based on both readability and a good
attempt at being a translation that seeks to expose the underlying
Greek text. This is my personal favorite translation, and I am happy
with the large number of resources being quickly released to help me
use this version.
My favorite feature of this study Bible is the short essays throughout
called “Theological Notes.” In my opinion this Bible is worth its
purchase price for these notes alone. Let me give you a flavor of what
they cover by listing some titles:
-The Image of God
-Body & Soul, Male & Female
-The Fall
-God’s Covenant of Grace
-Infant Baptism
-The Baptism of Jesus
-The Unpardonable Sin
-The Transfiguration of Jesus
-Hell
Next, a very large number of in-text maps are provided which make for
excellent resources. Since they are presented in the context of a
certain passage of Scripture, they are much more useful than the maps
often provided at the end of Bibles or in Bible Atlases. The editors’
hard work is obvious in making the maps easy to use to understand the
text with which they are presented. Great work here.
Many charts are also included which help get a birds-eye view of the
text, especially when large amounts of information are presented
throughout a number of chapters or when a logical progression of
thought is particularly important or difficult to follow. The ones that
are included are very useful, but I do wish that more charts had been
created.
I have seen a number of negative reviews based on individual issues
with which reviewers disagree with this Bible. I will say that I have
come across a number comment with which I mildly disagree or would have
wished had been stated differently (discussion of creation). And there
are a few topics with which I greatly disagree (infant baptism).
Nevertheless, the historical Reformed position is presented, and on
controversial issues, the opposing positions are mentioned. This is not
a downfall of the Bible, in fact, I think that it is a strength.
Positions are offered and defended rather than simply presenting
innocuous historical fact or some inoffensive application as many other
study Bibles do. Nevertheless, for that reason, if I was looking for a
Bible as a gift to a learning believer which I would agree with on a
wider-breadth of issues I would choose the
MacArthur Study Bible. But
as a great study tool and a more in-depth Study Bible than
MacArthur's I would go with the
Reformation Study Bible.
Keywords: Reformation,Study,Bible,Sproul,Mathison
How Many Lives Can a Music Video Save?
Wow.
Check out this music video by Nick Cannon.
It is the story of how Nick's mom decided not to have an abortion, and
he is challenging his listeners/viewers to think through what they are
doing when they have an abortion. This video is getting play too. I
have no doubt that it has saved many lives. Please spread the word. And
when after you see it, vote for it on
MTV's TRL &
BET 106 and Park. Spread the word.
In a
PBS interview, Nick Cannon says,
I'm not saying one should do this or one should do that.
I'm saying
this is what happened in my life. And I think that's what artists are
supposed to do. It sparked so many different conversations, you know.
And it's not saying, this is the way you should be. I've talked to
people who are pro-choice and said, wow, this song has really helped
me. I've talked to people pro-life and they've said the same thing. And
you can interpret it any way tat you want to interpret it, and whatever
you need to get out of it, you can definitely get out of it.
I do not know exactly where Nick stands except to say that he believes
that "there's a life" in the womb...so he can't be too far off. And his
music video has done more
for the prolife cause and has saved more lives than anything that his
prolife critics are tossing his way. I wouldn't do it that way, but his
no-judgment, just-tellin-a-story position certainly helps people
not write him off as the prolife fringe (part of the "vast right-wing
conspiracy"). And it makes his message maybe
more palatable for many. I'm not defending that statement, but I don't
want to hear any criticism coming out of our camp against Cannon. In
its context, he is simply trying to sidestep the politics, because
murder and childbirth are so much higher than the political plane on
which we discuss them. He tells his story in a poignant and unavoidable
way to say, "Thanks, mom, for letting me live." As the video closes his
prolonged gaze into the camera seems to be begging the pregnant woman
watching to do the same.
I
praise the Lord for this video. As I was watching it I got chills as I
was thinking about all the pregnant moms who were watching that and
were forced to conclude that to have an abortion would be murder. In 17
years hopefully thousands, even tens of thousands of babies will get to
repeat Cannon's thanksgiving to his mom.
Keywords: abortion,pro-life,prolife
Challies.com and book giveaways
Looks like we need to be frequenting Challies.com
more. Monergism is giving away what, if I read correctly, will be one
book a month to those who enter. This month they are giving the Valley of Vision cd set which I really want and they are also giving away Simplify Your Spiritual Life by Whitney. I hope either you or I win.
Stem Cells, Nazi Germany, & Dr. Dobson
Just do a simple
Google search (
google &
GoogleNews)
on this topic, and if you haven't yet heard you will immediately see
how Dr. Dobson's statements regarding the relationship between stem
cell research and the horrific human experiments the Nazi's conducted
within the concentration camps:
"But I have to ask this question. In World War II,
the Nazis experimented on human beings in horrible ways in the
concentration camps, and I imagine, if you wanted to take the time to
read about it, there would have been some discoveries there that
benefited mankind"
I am certainly no wholesale defender of Dr. James Dobson--I disagree
strongly with many of his stances on "Christian psychology"--yet on
this point I felt I had to chime in. Frankly I agree. Nevertheless, I
completely understand why so many would be offended. To the ears of
many this could be like saying, "Manufacturing antibiotics is very much
like killing Jews in the concentration camps." I would say that to say
that would be an absolutely horrible statement because it is both
ignorant in its content and disrespectful the millions that suffered
and died at the hands of the Nazi hatred.
But now back to Dobson's statements. The crimes committed against
those in the concentrations camps were much more grotesque. The
perpretrators of the crimes would have a much more difficult time
ignoring the fact that what they were doing was absolutely wrong. Performing medical experiments
on living, non-consenting human beings that always ended in suffering
and many times culminated in the death/murder of the victims.
Nevertheless, the fact remains, both stem cell research and
medical experiments in Nazi Germany involve living, non-consenting
human beings culminating in the death of the victims. The victims differ only in
size, level of development, age, and legal status. Therefore the
ability of the victims of stem cell research to suffer is indeed
limited. I do not deny that (although in the case of abortions many
times this is not the case). The proponents of
stem cell research (note I am speaking of embryonic stem cell research
when I use that term since I have no ethical concern with adult stem
cell research or use) speak only of the potential benefits to those of
us humans who are more developed and have all the power in this
instance. They in essence say "Humans do not count until we say that
they count." It is the same thought process, although easier to hide
from the consciences of those who think it, as the Nazi's had. The
Nazi's had the power to say when a person counted as a person and when
they did not. The Nazi's arbitrarily defined that the Jews and some
other groups did not have the rights of a human being and could be used
as medical experiments, much like rats, only less humane. In the United
States in the Three-fifths compromised, African Americans were defined
by those with more power as being worth only three-fifths of a person
in the eyes of the census and yet at the same time virtually no worth
as human beings when it came to human rights.
Humanity has a horrid history in which those who have the power have
the right to define morality and thereby steal human rights from others
for their own benefit. As I have already said, this has occurred both
in slavery and in Nazi Germany among many other tragic examples. Yet
because benefit trumped morality, those with the power continued to act
in their own best interest at the expense of their victims. Only now, we face a much more insidious situation,
it is hard to look at a fully grown and fully competant Jewish
individual or African American and say, "That's not a person." But it
is easy to contemplate an embryo, something so small that you can't see
it, and consider it a human being. So I fear that this battle will too
be lost because the ruling power in America since Roe v Wade
has managed to look at fetuses, a baby who has not yet left the womb
and wholly based upon its dependence on its mother and its location
within her womb declare that it is not a human if the mother does not
want it to be.
Humanity hates God. We like to be God. The Nazis wanted to be God
over those in the concentration camps deciding when they lived, when
they died, when they ate, when the slept, and when they suffered. In
America, slave owners and those who allowed slavery wanted to be God
and define personhood. In abortion and stem cell research we have
finally reached a more overt version of this blasphemy: The mother's
will defines personhood. Or maybe the scientist's or Congressman's will
defines personhood. In abortion, if the mother decides that the baby in
her womb is not a person, it is not a person. And if the mother decides
that it is, then it is. We don't like the fact that God is the Creator
and the one who has bestowed His image and a soul in all people. Nope,
we want to do that ourselves. So the power of the mother or the doctor
or the scientist over the helpless blastocyst, embryo, or fetus in our
sick and twisted rebellion against God gives that individual the
ability to create life or to destroy it...and we justify it for its
potential benefit toward mankind. A crime different than those
committed by the Nazis in concentration camps in its appearance but no
less horrific and blasphemous in its motive, practice, or outcome.
For more I would direct you to the
LTI Blog.
___
Update 8/24: I just stumbled upon this
post with a quote by a Jewish relative of some of those murdered in Nazi concentration camps. The
National Review article is
here.
Keywords: abortion,stem,cells
On Time Article: "Let's Have No More Monkey Trials"
I just finished reading
Krauthammer's piece with the subtitle, "To teach
faith as science is to undermine both." He goes on to declare that to
declare that there is a Creator who created and continues to guide His
creation is a perfectly acceptable statement of faith but to begin
teaching it as science goes too far and is outright preposterous. Faith
cannot be science, he insinuates, because faith begins with the tenets
of the faith as presuppositions and then seeks to find evidence to back
up those, stating "Science begins not with first principles but with
observation and experimentation." He then finishes the article with the
following:
To teach faith as science is to undermine the very idea of science,
which is the acquisition of new knowledge through hypothesis,
experimentation and evidence. To teach it as science is to encourage
the supercilious caricature of America as a nation in the thrall of
religious authority. To teach it as science is to discredit the welcome
recent advances in permitting the public expression of religion. Faith
can and should be proclaimed from every mountaintop and city square.
But it has no place in science class. To impose it on the teaching of
evolution is not just to invite ridicule but to earn it.
To trumpet the science of evolution as something that
proceeds without bias or "first principles" and through pure
observation and experimentation has come up with the big bang and both
micro- and macro-evolution is simply a lie. The science of which
Krauthammer speaks is a science that has the underlying assumption that
there is no "Creator who created and continues to guide His creation."
I come to science seeing God everywhere. The scientists of which
Krauthammer speak come to science assuming God is not to be found and
hiding from Him when He makes Himself known in creation.
I do not deny it, when I study science I assume that God was the cause
and stand in awe and amazement at His creativity, power, and
graciousness in that creation. When the proponents of Krauthammer's
science look at the same, they come at it with the same amount of faith
with which I do...But their faith is different. They cannot see past
their beliefs in the absence of God and at the same time blindly
ridicule me as the blind one unable to see past my Bible-stained prism
through which I see the world.
There is a large and growing body of science that is real science by
the "Intelligent Design" crowd that is just as valid as that posed by
the "Evolution" crowd. Which side we agree with and for which side we
argue is a matter of faith, but the Intelligent-designers are not the
only ones whose faith will guide them in that choice. To state that
faith and science are mutually exclusive is simply ignorant and
manipulative. Let the evidence and arguments for both be taught. To
suppress Intelligent Design and Creationism in the arena of ideas is to
commit the very atrocities that Krauthammer accuses Christians of
perpetrating
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to
them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes,
namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that
have been made. So they are without excuse...Claiming to be wise, they became fools. (Romans 1:19-22).
Keywords: evolution,creationism,\
The Joel Osteen Gospel
I have recently spent a few hours listening to
Joel Osteen
based on the suggestion of some family members who encouraged me that I
misjudged him based on my first listen. The first time I heard him, I
walked away with the impression that he was preaching a feel-good,
do-better, Christ-less Gospel. Now after listening for a few hours I
know that he preaches a feel-good, do-better, Christ-less,
be-like-Victoria-and-me
Gospel. Christ is mentioned at the end when you are promised that if
you pray the prayer you will now have eternal life, but what you
believe about him or even if you believe that he really exists don't
seem to be all that important, in fact he may say that to think so is
just divisive and hate-mongering. I was struggling with how to best
present my observations and then I stumbled upon Challies' blog entry: "
Joel Osteen and Joel-likeness." I decided that I couldn't possibly say it better so I will just direct you
there.
I want to make sure that you recognize that I am not Joel-bashing
because his method annoy me. It's not because he appeals to people's
emotions too much. It's not because of anything like that. It is
primarily because I believe that his message is not Christian. Because
he lifts the Bible up at the beginning and recites his Bible mantra and
cites some verses, he cannot be assumed to be Christian. During the 4
or so services that I watched on his website, I had the express purpose
of looking for any sign of the message that we are sinners in the eyes
of God and that we need Christ and him only to be saved. I had my pen
and paper in hand ready to document even an ellusive mention of the
Gospel.
Not even once was I able to put ink on the page, not even at the end when he asks people to pray the prayer. I was promised heaven a few times. I was told that God is very good, but that was about as close as it got.
Joel Osteen has been compared to a motivational speaker, but I think
that the message he preaches is much more dangerous than that of a
motivational speaker. A motivational speaker just promises you
happiness and success, but Joel promises you happiness, success,
and eternal
life. But he doesn't point his people to God's provided means to get us
there: Repentance and faith. With a motivational speaker the worst
outcome is a bunch of disillusioned people who've just wasted time and
money listening to him. But with Osteen's message, I fear that the
outcome is an innoculization to the Gospel. Those who would preach
repentance and faith and characterized as "divisive" and people
"without joy." So now he has told his people that they are going to be
successful and happy here, that they will enjoy eternity in heaven
with their loved ones, and not to listen to those who have the Gospel.
Therefore, I am not just annoyed by Osteen, but fear for the souls of those who hear and are drawn to his message.
Crucified with Christ or Jumping on the Bandwagon?
I want to direct everyone to
Tim Challies' observations on a particular King of the Hill episode.
There really aren't any conclusions in the article, but that's not the
point. By giving a play-by-play with quotes the message gets across and
I think that its a message which we all need to hear and be challenged
by: Do we do the "Christian" things that we do because we truly love
Christ or because it is the popular thing among the circle of friends
with whom we are spending time? Ultimately, I see very little
persecution coming into my life due to my devotion and love for Christ.
Instead, the "better I do" the more people seem to praise me for it, at
least in the church. And for non-believers, "Oh how nice that you have
found something which you love so much; I hope that I can find
something like that too." Instead, of being an offense in the world, "
Jesus is my Homeboy" shirts sell for $36 and
The Passion of the Christ
is the highest grossing indie film ever. What's going on. Where is the
fulfillment in America of the promise that Jesus gave his followers, "A
servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. (John 15:20)."? Do you want to know what I
fear? I think that are fighting hard to show that Jesus is cool, that
church can be fun, and being a
Jesus Freak means that you get to listen to cool music that is a "
positive alternative for the whole family."
Do you want to know what I see is a problem in my heart when I am doing
this and may be the underlying driving force behind why many Christians live
such a Spirit-less life surrounded by
spiritual things? I think Paul nails it when when was speaking to the motives behind the Judaizer's action toward the Galatians:
It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but
they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross in of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the
world. (Galatians 6:12-14)
Nobody persecutes a Christian anymore than a non-Christian for desiring
to make themselves look good. Those in the world are after making one's
own self look good so that they can boast in that thing. What is the
Christian life about? Is it about living as a part of the Christian
culture? Maybe homeschooling? Maybe getting the msot recent praise and
worship cd and then telling everyone how much you enjoyed it? Is it
about learning more theology, gaining a larger group of disciples, and
impressing the elders so that I can move up the ladder of church
leadership? Is it about coming up with pithy and thought-provoking blog
entries so that people can validate me? Is it about becoming active in
the church? Maybe being up on all of the "Christian" fads? Whatever it
is, Christian life is usually far from seeing oneself as "crucified
with Christ" (Galatians 2:20--dead to looking to one's own
righteousness). I am proud. I hate it, and am trying to mortify my
pride, but I am proud. And rarely do I boast in anything but my own
accomplishments, knowledge, or position. That's not any more offensive
to the world than if a non-Christian does it. But if I was convinced
that the only thing that makes me anything, my treasure, and my only
hope is my position before God because of what Christ did at the cross,
somebody might be offended. I would n't be the offense, the Cross of
Christ would, but am I being like the Judaizer's and living a life of
"Christian culture" so that I can boast in my flesh and so that I am
not "persecuted for the cross of Christ?" It's hard to say, but my fear
is that oftentimes the answer is "yes".
The cross of Christ is a freeing message (Galatians 5:1). Christ paid
the entire price for my sins at Calvary, and all of his perfect
righteousness is now freely given to me. What an insult to that
sacrifice if I try to add to it by bringing my meager accomplishments
before God and say, "Thank you for the cross, but look what I did to
help add a little more righteousness to my account." In fact, Paul says
that to do that is to attempt to nullify what Christ did (Galatians
2:21, 5:2-4). But to declare that we are hopeless, utterly hopeless
sinners reliant on coming to God on our faces begging for mercy is an
offensive message to humanity that is obsessed with trying to increase
our self-esteem. It's a message that my heart utterly loves, but
my flesh utterly hates. So God, I beg you to give me the mercy to live
my life consciously aware and even declaring to you minute by minute
that my only status, my only boast is Christ and what he did for me
when he stepped out of heaven to die and be raised on my behalf.
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalists: Is Christ Subjective Because Our Views Are?
Based on some negative comments that I have made on the writings of
John Shelby Spong in the past, I have received a few emails both
lambasting and congratulating me on my thoughts. Already getting a
glimpse of it in
Here I Stand, I decided to read his
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalists. The I just wanted to warn my
readers about what is out there, being passed off as mainstream
Christian thought, and is being eaten up.
Chapter 14 is a great example of what Spong stands for, and I cannot
for the life of me understand how this logic appeals to, much less
makes any ounce of sense to anybody. I'll quote from p. 227, where
Spong rips a question of Bonhoeffer's from its context and makes one of
the most blunt relativistic statements I've seen. And the fact that he
is thought of as a great thinker is beyond me: "[Bonhoeffer's] question
was not 'Who is Christ?' but rather, 'Who is Christ for us, for our
day?' Bonhoeffer recognized, as so many religious people fail to do,
that anything we say about Christ is subjective. We do not capture
Christ...Our words point to Christ. Our images interact with Christ.
But our words and our images are products of our world, of our cultural
realities. They are not objective. They will not endure forever."
I think many think that he is brilliant because they cannot follow his
flow of thought. Let's break this down: "We should not seek to find out
who Christ really is. That is a mistake because our perception will be
subjective. And because our perception is subjective (not objective)
therefore it is wrong to seek an objective reality of who Christ is."
First off, there is an implicit assumption here which Spong will not
make explicit--he even explicitly denies this assumption--that the
existance, the attributes, the actions, and the power of Christ must be
objective. IF we are to view anything subjectively, there must be
something to view. My perception of Christ may not be perfectly
accurate, just as your perception may not be either, but that does not
change the fact that an objective reality exists.
Take the following example: I am walking down the street with my iPod
in my ears and I see a man fall down dead in front of me. I did not
hear anything because the only reality that I could hear was the music
blaring in my ears. I did not see a cause for the man's death, so I
assumed that he must have had a heart attack. Another person heard a
gunshot and saw a group of teenagers running down the street. That
individual's perception is that he was shot by teens. A third person
saw a sniper take aim and pull the trigger. That person's assumption is
that the sniper shot the man. Three perceptions. Maybe one of them is
correct. Maybe none of them are. But it does not eliminate the fact of
an objective reality. And we don't live in this world like Spong
suggests. No, we conduct an investigation to try to bring our
subjective reality as close to in-line with objective reality as
possible. Granted, our perception limits us, but the quest should not
be ignored.
That is why I do not ask first and foremost, "who is Christ to me?" I
want to take the evidence presented in God's word and in the testimony
of the lives of the witnesses to his life, death, and resurrection and
say "Who is Christ?" I want to read his own testimony of himself. Then,
trying to mold my view of him as close to that truth as possible, then
and only then do I ask the question "Who is Christ to me?" And the
answer then becomes, "My only Hope. He's my Savior. He's my Treasure.
He's my King!"
On my own, I could turn Christ into whoever I want. Given free
territory in which to roam, unchecked by the truth of Scripture, my
imagination can and does redefine God constantly. Therefore, I must
believe the Word when it says of God, "You are the LORD, you alone. You
have made heaven, the heaven of
heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas
and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of
heaven worships you. (Neh 9:6)" Because if I don't I tend to think that
my perception defines reality. "My thought creates truth," I tell
myself. What utter lies. God alone is Lord.
But that isn't a message that my sinful heart likes to hear and it
isn't a message that Spong wants to hear. Therefore he has written the
book, "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism" and told us that the
Bible isn't God's word, objective truth is a foolish aim, God is
whoever we make him, and the ultimate goal and aim of our life and
religion is good works and our contentment. Please take your eyes off
yourself and turn them to Christ. He has existed for eternity as God,
humbled himself and became a man for our sake, died the death we
deserve on the Cross, and now he is interceding at the right hand of
the Father on our behalf. How do I know that? The Bible tells me so. So
please don't listen to these lies and pick up your Bible and read it.
Start with Matthew and read straight through to Revelation and then
start from Genesis and do the whole thing over again. Don't take my
word for it, don't let Spong's attempt to Rescue the Bible ruin it, but
read it and let God do the rest as he changes your heart and saves you
from your sins.
When God the Father Hated Jesus, His Son
We are a people familiar with hate. We've seen ton's of hate and the wrath and destruction that it causes:
6 million Jews dead in the Holocaust
Over 20 million killed in World War II, more than 80% of those civilians
recently
Over 2900 Killed and two gigantic towers leveled on September 11th
The beheadings and murder of Nick Berg, Ken Bigley, and countless others in the Middle East.
56 killed in London bombings on July 7th
88 or more killed in the attack in Cairo on July 23rd.
But most likely very few of us intimately know that kind of hate, the
kind of wrath that makes us fall on our face and tremble in fear. I
imagine myself face to face with a terrorist, him having a knife to my
neck and I shudder a little bit. I know that I'd do almost anything to
get myself out of that situation.
There is something much more terrifying which does not affect me as it
should. Proverbs 6:16 says that there are seven things which the Lord
hates, that are an abomination to him: "Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feed
that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers." I'm guilty on seven counts. I
have something a whole lot scarier than a Nazi or a terrorist to
contend with, I've earned the wrath of God. Jesus says (Matthew 10:28),
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather fear him who can destory both soul and body in hell."
Unlike our our selfish, sinful, unrighteous, unjustified, God-defying
hate, God has a perfect, God-glorifying, perfectly righteous and just
hate for sin. And God's hatred for sin is so fierce, so brutal, and so
inescapable that it is beyond our comprehension. We saw a glimpse, but
a very tempered version of it, when He destroyed all but a family in
the flood, when fire fell from heaven to consume Sodom and Gomorrah,
and when God destroys entire nations that rebell against Him, but
nowhere was that hatred so purely and fully expressad than at the cross.
Each of us, not a single one in this room, and I'm aware of none so
guilty as I am, have earned an eternity so horrid in Hell that all we
would be able to do day-after-day for one thousand years is to cry our
with no hope of relief and knash our teeth in agony like one who is
being burned alive and feels every second of it but can never just die
and then at the end of that thousand years have a thousand more
thousands with no hope of relief, not even a second. And we earned it.
That is our cup to drink. That is my cup: Eternal wrath.
I can't get my mind around it, but when I try I shudder to my very
deepest core and beg God for mercy. I can't comprehend that, but Jesus
could, and his response was the same. Turn to Matthew 26:39, the Garden
of Gathsemane, "And going a little farther he fell on his face and
prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from
me." The cup he is speaking is what Isaiah (51:17) called the cup of
God's wrath..the cup of staggering," and at the thought of it Jesus
staggered and fell to the ground and begged God for another way. He
could have said, and would have been justified in saying, "Father,
those disciples sleeping over there have earned this cup. I don't want
it. Make them drink it." But he did something so humble, so loving, so
unfathomable, he stared into that cup which contained all the wrath of
God not just against one man's sins but against billions of those who
had rebelled and sinned against Him. Jesus was staring into into the
cup of almighty God's wrath and said that thing for which we love Him,
praise Him, and remember Him today, (Matthew 26:42) "My Father, if this
cannot pass unless I drink it your will be done."
God's hatred against sin is greater than we could comprehend but His
love and mercy is greater still. The one who ruled heaven and earth,
created all with a word, and holds everything together by his will
stepped out of heaven and became a man. He did this so that he could go
to the cross as a sacrifice on my behalf and there drink the cup of
God's wrath against me so that I could live, so that I could drink the
cup of grace, the cup of the new covenant. This all-powerful one shook,
cried, and sweated blood and then willingly went to the cross to be
murdered by His father.
For eternity Jesus had experienced perfect intimacy with His Father in
the trinity. I've only known imperfect intimacy with my wife for 3 1/2
years. I cannot imagine giving up that intimacy for anything in the
world. Jesus went to the cross and the Trinity was ripped in two. The
Father stared at His Son whom He loved and saw my sin and your sin and
hated him. And Jesus cried out in so much more pain and agony than
anything those nails or the gaping wounds on his back could cause him,
(Matthew 27:46) "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He drank
every last drop of that cup for you and for me the cup which I deserved
to drink.
And now, the men will come down the aisles and serve us a little piece
of bread and a little cup with juice in it. Jesus told us to eat this
bread to remember his body which was broken in our place. He told us to
drink this cup, "the blood of the covenant, which is poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins," in remembrance of him.
So for all of you, whether East Valley Bible Church Tempe is your
regular body or if you are just visiting, if Jesus and his death and
resurrection are your only hope to avoid wrath and enjoy God forever,
please participate in this. However, if you, in your own judgment of
yourself cannot say with certainty that you have place all of your hope
in Jesus then please let the cup pass by. Jesus came to earth to live a
perfect life and then to die on your behalf. So please, stop trying to
earn heaven. You can't. All that you've earned is this cup of wrath.
John 3:16-17 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. 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." So, even if
you've never trusted Jesus like this before, you too can participate in
this time if you put your faith in him. Then please meet with one of us
after the service, even grab me during the service if you need to, I'd
love to pray with you. But if you have come and Jesus is not your hope,
he's not your treasure, please let the cup and the bread pass you by.
Please prepare your heart, thank Him, praise Him and we will take communion together in a few minutes.
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