The Biggest Scandal

"Grace is the biggest scandal in church history. It is something none of us deserve; something we’re given when we’re hiding in our sin and we meet our Saviour at the well. He offers us life, love, and hope: not condemnation. What will help someone who’s fallen “Go and sin no more?” Our gossip? Our assumptions? Our self-righteousness? Or our love, our encouragement, and our prayers?"

              -Anne Marie Miller

More Gospel Implications

Ready for some more Gospel Implications?  Here we go!

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus is praying we’ll be filled with his joy, staying dour, smug, & cold is not an option.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus has perfectly obeyed the law for us, we don’t have to, we GET to.

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus cannot possibly love us more than he already does, we can focus on loving others.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus is our Advocate & Intercessor, who even purifies our prayers, we can pray big & boldly.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus is the ONLY perfect spouse, let’s not expect our spouse to be Jesus to us.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus IS a perfect spouse to us, let’s love our spouse more sacrificially & extravagantly.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus ONLY & ALWAYS speaks words of life to us, how dare we harm one another with OUR words?

Gospel Implications: Because Jesus is redeeming a pan-national Bride, we must decry & repent of all racism & tribalism.

Gospel Implications: Since we are in Christ and condemnation free, all self-contempt must be repudiated as unbelief.

Gospel Implications: Since Jesus came to set prisoners free, we must not stay enslaved to bitterness, greed and vanity.

Gospel Implications: Do not think/act like an orphan, for you are a legally adopted, dearly loved child of your Father.

 Can't get enough of this!

Do You Know "The -ations"?

As we approach Good Friday, I wonder how many of us know and can list the -ations of The Cross:

No, not the stations. The -ations.

Mediation -- There is a gulf between us and God, held in tension by his justified wrath owed to us for our sin. At the cross, the sinless Christ does the work of mediation both necessary and ordinarily impossible.

Condemnation -- The mediator must accept the place of the guilty in order to exchange his innocence. Therefore he goes to the cross willingly, because it is the foreordained place of condemnation where we all belong. He becomes the substitute condemned and takes on the condemnation.

Propitiation -- A blood debt is owed, legally speaking, because without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. But we cannot make this payment because we have no currency with which to do so. We are morally bankrupt, every last one of us. So at the cross, Christ makes this payment with the riches of himself, supplying his life to take the debt upon himself and thereby satisfying the law's demands. God's wrath is thereby appeased.

Imputation -- By propitiating the debt of sin, he takes it off of the condemned onto himself as he becomes the condemned on the cross, but in doing that, he conveys his innocence to those actually guilty. He who knew no sin became sin that we might become the righteousness of God. His righteousness is imputed to us; this means that we are counted righteous despite our sin.

Expiation -- But Jesus doesn't stop there. With his life given sacrificially on the cross, he doesn't just take on our debt, he eradicates it completely. He takes it upon himself like the scapegoat to carry our sins into the void. Another way to say this is that Jesus' work on the cross doesn't just reckon us righteous, it actually makes us righteous.

Sanctification -- An ongoing work of the Spirit, to be sure, but thanks to Christ's expiating work on the cross, we are also declared sanctified on the cross, which is to say, cleansed by his blood. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Justification -- Nearly all of Christ's crosswork put together merits what we receive through faith: right standing before God. Because of the cross, we for whom there was no justification are now justified.

Reconciliation -- And since we are justified before God, we are reconciled to him. The gulf is bridged, the wrath appeased, the debt canceled and cast into the void, the soul cleansed. Christ's wide-open arms at the cross reveal to us the means of the Father embracing his once-lost children. Through the cross, Christ reconciles us to God. (Colossians 1:20)

Nations -- Who is Christ's crosswork for, exactly? (1 John 2:2)

From: The Gospel-Driven Church

EscapingThe Black Hole

Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center has posted some good stuff on "Escaping The Black Hole of Condemnation"  -Part 1 and Part 2.

I can’t believe I fell into that sin. How can God possibly forgive me? I shouldn’t even call myself a Christian. Will I ever get the victory? I’m such a miserable failure. How can God accept me?

Have you ever felt like this? Most of us have been there. The black hole of condemnation. We can feel hopeless, depressed, discouraged. We grieve over offending God. Our sin stings. And we often regret the pain we inflicted on others or consequences brought on ourselves. Sometimes we can be filled with regret for years of sin or failure.

The greater the sin, the deeper our grief can be and the deeper the hole of self-reproach. We can believe we must do penance or punish ourselves. Or that it’s wrong to have any joy or to try to remove the weight of our sorrow from our backs.

We hear Scriptures like “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8.1), yet still feel condemned. We know technically we’re accepted by God, but just can’t believe he really loves us now. We feel like if we let go of our guilt, we’re not really sorry for our sin. How do we escape the swirling vortex of condemnation?

Stephen gives us the following steps to escape condemnation:

• Know where condemnation comes from
• Focus on Jesus
• Fight to believe the gospel
• Trust God's Character
• Grieve Appropriately
• Beware Self Pity
• Give Thanks
• Get Back Up
• Trust God to Finish the Job

Good stuff, and well worth reading.

The Difference Between Condemnation and Conviction

This is a good reminder of the difference between condemnation  (bad) and conviction (good):

Condemnation is either from Satan or our sinful hearts. Conviction is a gift from the Holy Spirit.

Condemnation causes us to turn away from God in fear, dread, and shame. Conviction causes us to come to God and freshly place our faith in the perfect life and death of Christ.

Condemnation causes us to wallow in despair and self-pity. Conviction leads to God-centered hope.

Condemnation leads us to believe that we’ll never change. Conviction gives us hope that, even though we sinned, God is still at work in us.

Condemnation is inward, self-focused, and always dwelling on the fact that I have sinned. Conviction is outward, God-focused, and always dwelling on the fact that I have sinned against God.

Condemnation sees God as an angry judge who could strike at any moment. Conviction sees God as a loving Father who disciplines his children.

Condemnation can actually cause us to forget repentance because we are so inwardly focused. Conviction leads to quick (but not hasty) repentance.

Condemnation feels like a black, oppressive cloud. Conviction feels like a sweet, though often very painful, interaction with the Lord.

Condemnation is useless and sinful. Conviction is fruitful and pleasing to the Lord.

I could not have said it better myself  (and always need to be reminded of these truths)


From: Stephen Altrogge at The Blazing Center » The Difference Between Condemnation and Conviction

Three Truths About Us

The quote below is from Jared Wilson at The Gospel-Driven Church: 3 Things I Know About Myself and Others. The three things he says he knows about himself are also true about me.

1. Hurt people hurt people.

2. If Satan can't get me to be despondent through recall of my past sins, he will try to get me bitter and graceless by reminding me of others' sins against me. I may not always agree with his condemnation of myself, but he knows it's really easy to get me to say "Yeah!" to condemnation of others.

3. The key not just to appreciation of what I've got but to thankfulness in all things is recognizing I don't deserve anything good.

Bet they are true about you too!

Discerning the Voices in My Head

"I’ve learned by experience that many Christians cannot distinguish the promptings of the Holy Spirit from the accusations of Satan. The difference is this: The Holy Spirit convicts us for sins that we have been unwilling to face in God’s presence; Satan makes us feel guilty for sins that are already under the blood of Christ — that is, for sins that we have already confessed. The Holy Spirit reminds us of our sins before we are cleansed; Satan continues to remind us of them after we are cleansed."

~Erwin Lutzer in the December 5, 2009 devotional reading from Our Journey

Quoted at: Voices in My Head: Discernment « Thinking Out Loud