Norway and the Scandal of the Cross

Jared Wilson proves once again why he is widely considered one of the best Christian bloggers in this piece - That Irritating Feeling, That Twinge? That's the Scandal of the Cross.  An excerpt below:

The horrid beast who murdered upwards of 100 in Norway last week deserves the full measure of justice executed upon him, and worse. He deserves the wrath of God. And if he goes to his grave as he is, he will experience the eternal conscious torment of hell.

But if he repents and believes in Christ . . .

That little "twinge" we feel at the very idea is our brushing up against the scandal of the cross....

...If this vicious murderer in Norway repents of his sins and trusts in Jesus' saving work on his behalf, when he goes to his grave he will be welcomed into the arms of the Father like a beloved child.

If this bothers me, it is because I have forgotten most of the Psalms and most of the New Testament were written by murderers.

And it is because I consider myself a better judge than God.

And it is because I have forgotten that I deserve the same fate as this horrid beast. Or I think I do not face this fate because of some comparative goodness of my own.

If this idea rubs you wrong or offends you, perhaps you need to rethink the depths of your own evil heart, for, like mine, it is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9). You may also need to reconsider the awesome grace of God. What a Savior we have!

Costly Forgiveness

"Christian forgiveness is not a cheap denial of the reality of evil or the trite sloganeering of 'forgive and forget.'  That may suffice for minor personal affronts, but it is hollow and even insulting when applied to crimes like murder, rape, and genocide. No, Christian forgiveness is not cheap.  Rather, it is costly because it flows from the cross - the place where injustice and forgiveness meet in violent collision.  Christian forgiveness does not call us to forget.  Christian forgiveness allows us to remember but calls us to end the cycle of revenge."

Brian Zahand, Unconditional?: The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness, pages 11-12

I cannot speak highly enough about this book. Last weekend I found it on the shelf of our local Borders Books, started reading while drinking my caramel mocha, and have been totally hooked ever since.

Expect a lot more comments and quotes from this book over the next few days. Get it. Read it. Do it!
 

The Fact of Evil Transformed

“God did not abolish the fact of evil: He transformed it. He did not stop the Crucifixion: He rose from the dead.”
— Dorothy Sayers Letters to a Diminished Church
(Nashville, Tn.: W Publishing Group, 2004), 122-23

Hat Tip: Of First Importance

The Nature of My Evil - And of HIs Love

Saw this piece by John Piper at "Desiring God" on the subject of Knowing the Nature of Your Evil and just had to share it. This is good!

Do you think the essence of your evil is disobeying commandments? That’s a good start. But it’s not the essence of our evil. Commands simply name the evil and its fruits, and tell us not to do them.

The essence of our evil is that we prefer anything to God (Romans 1:23; 2:23). Commands do not create the possibility of evil. Commands name it......

...But lawbreaking is not the essence of my evil. Desiring anything above God is the essence of my evil, before any commands name it.

One reason this is important to know is that it will affect the way you pursue change. If you think the essence of your evil is commandment-breaking, your focus for change will be commandment-keeping.

That is doomed to fail for two reasons. If we get good at it, we think we have changed, but the essence of our evil remains. If we can’t get good at it, we despair and quit trying.

But if we know that the essence of our evil is not commandment-breaking, but preferring anything to God, then our focus for change will be a change of heart. That is hopeful, because God promised, “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).

This is the new covenant that Jesus purchased with his blood (Luke 22:20). We receive it by faith.

This is why we need Jesus. This is why I need a Savior! This is why you need a Savior! We need a Savior because we are evil by nature, through and through, bottom to top, inside and out. Yet Jesus loves me and died for me and takes my evil into himself to be replaced by His goodness.

Hallelujah!